Don’t get Rob Schneider started on working with Bill Murray.
The comedian and Saturday Night Live alum had a lot to say about the Ghostbusters star during a Wednesday appearance on SiriusXM’s Jim Norton & Sam Roberts. When one of the hosts noted that Jaws actor Robert Shaw, who played Quint, was rumored to have been difficult on the set of the blockbuster, Schneider brought up Murray.
“That’s the same thing with Bill Murray,” Schneider said. “I won’t say who the filmmaker was, but ‘Bill Murray is gonna come, he’s gonna change the… dialogue. He’s gonna change things, and it’s gonna be great, but you don’t know who you’re gonna get. Which Bill Murray you’re gonna get. The nice Bill Murray? Or you’re gonna get the tough Bill Murray?'”
He noted that while Murray, who was an SNL cast member himself more than a decade before Schneider, has a reputation for being delightful in his interactions with the public — popping up at engagement photo sessions and serving up beers — his personal experience was different.
“He’s super nice to fans. He wasn’t very nice to us,” Schneider said. “He hated us on Saturday Night Live when he hosted. Absolutely hated us. I mean, seething.”
After leaving the sketch show, Murray came back to host the episode that aired on Feb. 20, 1993, a week after his now classic movie Groundhog Day debuted at the box office. That was the iteration of the cast that featured future movie stars Chris Farley and Adam Sandler. Schneider said Murray was not impressed.
“He hated Chris Farley with a passion,” Schneider said. “Like he was just seething looking at him. I don’t know exactly [why], but I want to believe that it’s because Chris thought it was cool to be [John] Belushi — who [was] his friend who he saw die — that he thought it was cool to be that out of control. That’s my interpretation, but I don’t really know. I don’t believe it. I only believe it 50 percent.”
Farley infamously died of a drug overdose in 1997, just two years after he left the NBC late-night staple. But during his life, he was open about his adoration for the late Belushi, who had himself died of an overdose in 1982, after having been on SNL with Murray. Both were 33.
Schneider insisted that Farley was not the only one who didn’t receive Murray’s approval.
“He just hated, like, all of us, pretty much. The least of the hate was to me…. I took great pleasure in that he hated me less,” he said with a laugh. “Because he’s my hero.”
Then Schneider was asked how he could tell that Murray disliked them.
“You just saw the way he looked at [Farley], and it was just naked rage, you know?” he said. “I mean, he hated [Adam] Sandler. Really hated Sandler, too. Murray. He just wasn’t into that groove of it, you know? And Sandler was just committed to it, and just like…as soon as he would get on, you could see the audience just ate him up, you know?”
A lawyer for Murray, who traditionally has not employed a publicist and is known for being difficult to reach, did not respond to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment.
Just this week, a new report from Puck revealed that Murray paid a $100,000 settlement for his allegedly inappropriate behavior on the set of the Aziz Ansari-directed movie Being Mortal. The production shut down in April, following a complaint about the incident by an unidentified member of the production. Multiple sources told the publication that Murray straddled a female production staffer on a bed on the set. He also kissed her on the mouth, though both were wearing masks. He has said that he meant it as a joke.
Actress Geena Davis, who co-starred with Murray in 1990’s Quick Change, wrote in her memoir, Dying of Politeness, which was released Tuesday, that she had a bad experience with him, too. She said Murray had insisted on using a massager on her during their first meeting, then later screamed at her in front of everyone.
