Lucy Liu reacts to hearing complaints about Bill Murray's alleged bad behavior on sets: 'I felt sad that it happened to other people'
The story of Lucy Liu encountering bad behavior from Bill Murray on the set of 2000 movie Charlie's Angels has long been Hollywood lore. She confirmed what had happened — he allegedly used "inexcusable and unacceptable language" to berate her in front of the entire cast and crew — in July 2021, and other Murray co-stars, including Geena Davis, Richard Dreyfus and Seth Green, have shared similar stories.
Liu did not enjoy learning about them.
"I felt sad that it happened to other people," she told People. "It doesn't make me feel validated to hear other people having bad experiences."
But she says the fact that they were able to share their experiences is a good thing.
"I don't think it's a great feeling to have to live with that and to feel that you're punishing yourself for something that you had no control over," Liu said. "I feel very grateful that people are able to speak their minds and release that because I don't think it's a positive energy to hold within yourself. It's valuable to be able to connect to other people and feel like you're not the only one."
A rep for Murray did not respond to Yahoo Entertainment's request for comment.
In 2019, Dreyfuss told Yahoo Entertainment that Murray had been an "Irish drunken bully" on the set of What About Bob?, the 1991 comedy in which they co-starred.
"I didn't talk about it for years," Dreyfuss said. "Bill just got drunk at dinner. … He came back from dinner [one night] and I said, 'Read this [script tweak], I think it's really funny.' And he put his face next to me, nose-to-nose. And he screamed at the top of his lungs, 'Everyone hates you! You are tolerated!' There was no time to react, because he leaned back and he took a modern glass-blown ashtray. He threw it at my face from [only a couple feet away]. And it weighed about three quarters of a pound. And he missed me. He tried to hit me. I got up and left."
Davis wrote in her 2022 memoir, Dying of Politeness, that Murray behaved inappropriately when they made the 1990 movie Quick Change. She said he once yelled at her in front of the crew, used a massager on her during the audition process and took down the strap of her dress during a TV interview to promote their collaboration.
Meanwhile, Green said in October that, when he was 9, he appeared on an episode of Saturday Night Live that was hosted by Murray, then in his 30s. He remembered having an altercation with the Caddyshack alum, after Murray insisted that Green was in his chair, that ended with Murray picking him up by his ankles and dangling him over a trash can.
Among recent incidents is that Murray's upcoming film Being Mortal was shut down in April 2022, after an unidentified woman working on the film complained that he had acted inappropriately toward her.