The lovable stories about Bill Murray posing for photos with fans or offering wisdom about life have been interrupted after Lucy Liu shared a story about working with the Hollywood veteran. The two acclaimed actors shared the spotlight back in 2000 when they starred in Charlie’s Angels, and recently, Liu caught up with Asian Enough, a podcast from the Los Angeles Times, where she spoke about a verbal altercation.
The incident reportedly took place during a rehearsal where, according to the Why Women Kill actress, Murray began to “hurl insults” towards her while they were going over a scene. Initially, Liu claimed that she didn’t understand what was going on but soon realized that the Ghostbusters icon was directing his energy toward her.
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“I was, like, ‘Wow, he seems like he’s looking straight at me.’ I couldn’t believe that could be towards me,” she said. “I say, ‘I’m so sorry. Are you talking to me?’ Clearly, he was because then it started to become a one-on-one communication.” Liu didn’t detail what was said, but she called Murray’s comments “inexcusable and unacceptable.”
“I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it,” said the actress. “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.” She added that when the media caught wind of the exchange, she found the public’s response to be sexist. “What came out in the press was that I was this and I was that,” she said.
“It was incredible to me how it was turned around, and they automatically thought that the woman was the difficult one. But I didn’t understand how it got flipped when I had nothing to do with instigating it or creating that platform of confrontation or anxiety.” Liu and Murray have long reconciled, and he even spoke about the incident back in 2009, reportedly saying he “will dismiss you completely” if he feels as if someone is “unprofessional.”