Lucy Liu has been open about a confrontation she had with Bill Murray in 2000 while they were filming Charlie’s Angels for Sony.
On an episode of the Los Angeles Times podcast Asian Enough, hosted by Johana Bhuiyan, Tracy Brown, Suhauna Hussain, and Jen Yamato, the actress gave her take on the situation for the first time.
Liu claimed that she had a run-in with Murray during a rehearsal of a recently modified scene without Murray’s knowledge.
Bill Murray was unable to attend because of a family event, she said. “We had taken the weekend to rewrite that particular scene.” “So everyone else did that, and we just made the scene flow better.
She remarked, “I wish I had more input on [the rewriting], but I didn’t. “Because I was the last person cast and I probably had the least privilege in terms of contributing creatively at that time,” the actor said.
Liu verified allegations that Murray began “to sort of hurl insults” at her after learning of the rewrites, though she did not specifically mention what the actor said to her during the scene’s rehearsing.
The actress found it difficult to understand what was happening in the present. I thought, “Wow, it looks like he’s staring right at me. What do I have to do with something extremely important at that time, I couldn’t imagine that [his statements] could be directed at me.
She spoke. I apologize so much, I say. Are you talking to me?’ And it was obvious that he was since the conversation began to focus on just the two of them.
Some of Murray’s comments, in Liu’s opinion, “was unforgivable and inappropriate.” She was one of the less well-known actresses on set, so she made the decision to speak up.
She said, “I defended myself, and I don’t regret it. “There’s no need to condescend or put other people down, no matter how low on the totem pole you may be or where you come from,” she said.
Liu compared the early-career encounter to a time when she was a youngster when a salesperson used derogatory language toward her immigrant mother.
Liu stated that she is unsure of the connection between the incident and her response. But she added, “I don’t want to be that person who won’t stand up for myself and defend the one thing I have, which is my dignity and respect.
The actress later addressed the immediate post-incident media coverage, stating that it came across as misogynistic.
“I was described in the media as being this and being that. It amazed me how it was reversed, and they assumed the woman was the problematic one right away,” she remembered. “However, I couldn’t comprehend how things turned around given that I wasn’t the one who started it.
Even though some media publications did not support her, she found comfort in the comments made by Charlie’s Angels cast members who valued her response as a young actress going through a trying time. She said, “I recall some crew members who I didn’t even know at the time came up to me on other sets and told me that they were there at the time, and they were incredibly thankful that I did it. Years later, maybe even decades later.
She and Murray have made amends. “I have absolutely nothing against Bill Murray. He approached me and was completely lovely the last time I saw him, which was during an SNL reunion, she claimed. But I won’t just stand there and take a beating, I said.