Columbia Pictures
If you want to contact the great Bill Murray, you can call a 1-800 number that puts you in semi-direct contact with the comedy superstar. I was commissioned by a friend to provide this figure several years ago while I was working on a piece that might have been enhanced by the legendary actor's input. I called Bill Murray twice. He never returned my calls. Maybe it's my pitching skills that aren't good enough. Maybe I should remind him of the time we fought side by side at the Café des Artistes in 2005.
Regardless, Murray is notoriously crafty, even if you get him in the room. A famous producer once told me that they pitched the “Ruck Your Luck” movie — which eventually became “The Luckiest Man in America” starring Paul Walter Hauser — to him over lunch at a New York restaurant. Midway through the meeting, Murray excused himself to the bathroom. When he was absent for 10 minutes, producers went to the men's room to check on him. The room was empty and the windows were wide open.
It doesn't matter who you are. If Murray isn't sure whether to work with you, he'll put you in a difficult position. Ryan Reynolds discovered this when he tried to get the “Saturday Night Live” actor to be interviewed for the Colin Hanks-directed documentary “John Candy: What I Like About Me.” You'd think a movie star like Reynolds would have agent-to-agent connections and pull off interviews with ease. That's not how Murray works. /Film's Ethan Anderton learned this firsthand when he participated in a Chicago documentary Q&A.
Want to talk to Bill Murray? Review your spitting history
Columbia Pictures
When asked during a Q&A how he tracked down Murray, Reynolds mentioned that contact with the star had been primarily via fax in the past. Then he found an acquaintance who had Murray's phone number. According to Reynolds:
“I said to the guy, 'Listen, I don't want to implicate you, so I need you to give me this number through a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend.'” And he did. So eventually someone called me and gave me his phone number and the voicemail was to a Greek shipping company. I believed it. Hello boy, that's authentic. “
When I called Murray, I had heard nothing from the Greek shipping company (probably a reference to “The Life on the Water with Steve Zissou”). As soon as I heard a notification tone, I quickly left a message. However, I didn't leave 40 to 50 messages somewhere around. Reynolds did, and as he walked into a party, he finally got a call from Murray. Reynolds answered the call, but it didn't go well.
Murray pointedly asked Reynolds who was the “father of slobber.” Here's an answer, folks. This is Danny Thomas of Toledo, Ohio. Alas, Reynolds thought too much. “I'm lucky,” he said. “When I was younger, I had a friend who started out in vaudeville, and he basically gave me a college education in comedy history, all the way up to Jack Benny and stuff like that, which I was so grateful for. So I said, 'That's Desi Arnaz, Bill.'” Unsatisfied with Reynolds' answer, Murray hung up the phone.
Reynolds eventually gathered his children to record a video in which they helped him plead with Murray for an interview. This broke through Murray's defenses, and he eventually gave the interview that tied the documentary together.
So if you need to interview Bill Murray and you're lucky enough to get his phone number, go after the old dog. But maybe don't tell him you're Ryan Reynolds.