Drew Barrymore remembers Bill Murray being in a ‘bad mood’ before he and Lucy Liu got into an on-set dispute while filming Charlie’s Angels in 2000.
Barrymore touched on the incident during Tuesday’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, backing up Liu’s claims Murray ‘hurl[ed] insults’ at the actress, prompting a tense discussion.
Lucy, 52, opened up about the incident on Los Angeles Times’ Asian Enough podcast in August, after a production assistant on the shoot dished about the fight on Twitter in July, saying ‘there were tears but no violence.’
Supportive: Drew Barrymore supported Charlie’s Angels co-star Lucy Liu’s account of an on-set dispute with Bill Murray that happened while filming the 2000s action/comedy during her Tuesday show
What happened: Drew didn’t offer a ton of details but explained that Bill ‘just came in in a bad mood and what you have to know is how much Lucy stood up for herself’
Drew didn’t offer a ton of details but explained: ‘Okay, so what really happened was Bill was just in a — you know comedians can be a little dark sometimes — and he just came in in a bad mood and what you have to know is how much Lucy stood up for herself and that was the great thing that came out of an unfortunate circumstance.’
‘She literally said, “I do not accept that kind of behavior from you.” And we all supported her and backed her up and we moved forward.’
When accounts of the incident resurfaced, Barrymore was quick to reach out to Liu and share a video she made backing up her story.
She explained: ‘I got to say, Lucy is out there you right now, talking about her instance with Bill Murray, and I did this whole video and sent it to her to back her up and she was like, “Nah, I don’t need it.”
Backing her up: ‘She literally said, “I do not accept that kind of behavior from you.” And we all supported her and backed her up and we moved forward’
In August, the Elementary actress discussed the long-rumored blow-up with the Los Angeles Times’ Asian Enough podcast.
Liu was still relatively unknown to the masses when she was cast alongside Barrymore and Cameron Diaz in Charlie’s Angels.
She said that the incident really started when the main cast members re-worked a scene when Murray wasn’t there, that made the scene, ‘more fluid.’
She added she wished she had more to do with that scene, but she was, ‘the last one cast and I probably had the least amount of privilege in terms of creatively participating at that time.’
Her side: Lucy, 52, opened up about the incident on Los Angeles Times ‘ Asian Enough podcast in August, after a production assistant on the shoot dished about the fight on Twitter in July, saying ‘there were tears but no violence’
The actress said that when they filmed the scene, Murray started to, ‘sort of hurl insults,’ though she wouldn’t go into specifics about what he said.
She added that the comments continued and she realized that they were solely directed at her.
‘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 said.
Insult: The actress said that when they filmed the scene, Murray started to, ‘sort of hurl insults,’ though she wouldn’t go into specifics about what he said
‘Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it. So, yes, I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it,’ Liu said.
‘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,’ she added.
She said that she has been approached by crew members several years later who said they were grateful she stood up to Murray.
‘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. But I’m not going to sit there and be attacked,’ Liu said.
The actress added that when it came out in the press, she thought it was, ‘incredible’ that she was branded as the ‘difficult one.’
No regrets: ‘Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it. So, yes, I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it,’ Liu said
‘So even though it’s been decades, it’s something that obviously I remember very intimately and have not forgotten,’ Liu said.
Murray addressed the spat in a 2009 interview with Entertainment Weekly, though he saw it completely differently.
‘Look, I will dismiss you completely if you are unprofessional and working with me…When our relationship is professional, and you’re not getting that done, forget it,’ Murray said.
He also said in the same interview that Charlie’s Angels director McG made up a story that Murray head-butted him on set, stating, ‘That’s bulls**t! That’s complete crap!
‘I don’t know why he made that story up. He has a very active imagination…No! He deserves to die! He should be pierced with a lance, not head-butted.’
Perfectly nice: ‘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. But I’m not going to sit there and be attacked,’ Liu said