During a recent appearance on the Los Angeles Times’ podcast Asian Enough, Lucy Liu opened up about her experience working with Bill Murray on 2000’s Charlie’s Angels.
Liu told hosts Johana Bhuiyan, Tracy Brown, Suhauna Hussain, and Jen Yamato that Murray insulted her on set after a scene was rewritten.
“We had taken the weekend to rework that particular scene and Bill Murray was not able to come because he had to attend some family gathering,” Liu said. “So it was everyone else, and we just made the scene more fluid.” When Murray found out about the rewrite, that’s when he allegedly verbally attacked Liu.
“As we’re doing the scene, Bill starts to sort of hurl insults, and I won’t get into the specifics, but it kept going on and on,” Liu continued. “I was, like, ‘Wow, he seems like he’s looking straight at me.’ I couldn’t believe that [the comments] could be towards me, because what do I have to do with anything majorly important at that time? I literally do the look around my shoulder thing, like, who is he talking to behind me? I say, ‘I’m so sorry. Are you talking to me?’ And clearly he was, because then it started to become a one-on-one communication.”
Liu described some of the language he used as “inexcusable and unacceptable,” and said that she didn’t let him get away with it. “I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it,” she added. “Because no matter how low on the totem pole you may be or wherever you came from, there’s no need to condescend or to put other people down. And I would not stand down, and nor should I have.”
Murray’s long-rumored mistreatment of Liu garnered attention recently, after Shaun O’Banion revealed on Twitter what he saw on set when he worked on the film as a production assistant. O’Banion described Murray’s behavior on set and called it “totally uncalled for,” saying that he referred to her as a “TV” actress rather than a movie star.
In his recently viral tweets on the matter, O’Banion suggested that Liu called Murray a “fucking cocksucker” when she walked off the set crying. “I have nothing against Bill Murray at all. I’ve seen him since then at a SNL reunion, and he came up to me and was perfectly nice,” Liu said. “But I’m not going to sit there and be attacked.”
Murray’s treatment of Liu garnered attention once again after Shaun O’Banion posted tweets describing what he saw on set, where he worked as a production assistant.
O’Banion described Murray’s behavior, which included diminishing Liu as a “TV” actress who wasn’t ready for the “big leagues.”
