Bill Murray Calls His 2022 Sexual Misconduct Allegation ‘Funny’ in New Interview

“I thought it was funny, and every time it happened, it was funny," Murray told the New York Times of his alleged on-set misconduct. "To me it’s still funny."

By Audra Heinrichs | April 7, 2025 | 2:41pm

Photo: Getty Images News

Bill Murray Calls His 2022 Sexual Misconduct Allegation ‘Funny’ in New Interview

For some reason, Bill Murray has, once again, chosen to publicly speak out about his sexual misconduct allegations. While promoting his latest film about a dog who is also a friend, aptly titled The Friend, the actor reflected on the most recent accusation in a new interview with the New York Times.

In 2022, while Murray was working on Being Mortal, a film that was—very ironically—directed by Aziz Ansari, production was suspended after Murray was accused of kissing and straddling a female crew member. The woman, who remained anonymous, filed a complaint against Murray, and the film was ultimately shut down completely.

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“It wasn’t like I touched her,” Murray told the NYT. “I gave her a kiss through a mask. And she wasn’t a stranger.” Nothing like the ol’ “I knew her, therefore a kiss without explicit consent isn’t misconduct” explanation, am I right? Murray further referred to the woman as “someone that I worked with, that I had had lunch with on various days of the week,” which, I have to assume, he thinks is another valid excuse for what he was accused of.

According to Murray, his actions that day were nothing more than an innocent attempt at some on-set levity. He added that the whole matter was “disappointing” because he “thought” he “knew” the woman.

“We were all stranded in this one room listening to this crazy scene,” Murray explained. “I thought it was funny, and every time it happened, it was funny. To me it’s still funny, the idea that you could give someone a kiss with a mask on. It’s still stupid,” Murray said, noting that he had done the same to another unspecified person on set. Allegedly straddling and kissing multiple people on the job? And still thinking it’s funny? Typically, I would wonder how he’s still working at all, but…it’s Hollywood.

Murray also took aim at Disney, who owns the failed film’s production company, Searchlight Films. He claimed he “tried to make peace” in arbitration, but wound up “barbecued” instead. Murray reportedly paid the woman a $100,000 settlement.

“It still bothers me because that movie was stopped by the human rights or ‘H&R’ of the Disney corporation,” he said. “It turned out there were pre-existing conditions and all this kind of stuff. I’m like, what? How was anyone supposed to know anything like that? There was no conversation, there was nothing. There was no peacemaking, nothing.” How was anyone supposed to know anything about…not kissing people on a set? Sir.

This isn’t the first time Murray has spoken about the matter. In an interview with CNBC in 2022, he likened the sexual misconduct allegations to “a difference of opinion.”

“I had a difference of opinion with a woman I’m working with,” he said at the time. “I did something I thought was funny, and it wasn’t taken that way. As of now, we are talking and we are trying to make peace with each other.”

“The world’s different than it was when I was a little kid,” Murray added. “Things change, times change.”

Well, times may change, but Murray, who boasts a rap sheet of other on-set misconduct allegations that span decades, clearly hasn’t. In her 2022 memoir, Dying of Politeness, Geena Davis alleged that not only did Murray yell at her in front of 300 people when they worked together on Quick Change in 1990, but made her lie on a bed while he used a massage device called “the Thumper” on her. “I said no multiple times, but he wouldn’t relent,” she wrote.

Other allegations have stemmed from incidents involving Lucy Liu, who said Murray hurled “inexcusable and unacceptable” comments at her on the Charlie’s Angels set; Solange Knowles, who witnesses saw Murray grab by her hair during a 2016 SNL taping; and Anjelica Huston, who called Murray “a shit” after working with him on Wes Anderson’s 2004 film, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.

Still, Murray told the NYT that “you can teach an old dog new tricks” and that he supposedly knows better now. OK!