Keke Palmer says Being Mortal would need “a major rewrite” after complaint about Bill Murray
Production on Aziz Ansari's directorial debut was shut down in April over a complaint about star Bill Murray's behavior
Aux News Bill Murray
Back in April, production on Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut Being Mortal was shut down over a complaint about someone’s behavior on-set—and with only about a month of shooting left to go. Filming has not yet resumed on the project, but since then we’ve learned that the complaint was about “inappropriate” behavior from cast member Bill Murray. Later, Murray explained, “I did something I thought was funny, and it wasn’t taken that way,” with him also saying that whatever had happened had involved a woman he was working with and that he was trying to “make peace” with her so they could finish the film.
We still don’t know—and probably never will know—what exactly happened or who all was involved, but we do know that Being Mortal was also set to star Keke Palmer, and speaking with Variety today at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles, she suggested that the movie is probably dead now. Asked about the lengthy shutdown, Palmer said that “if somebody could figure it out, it would be Aziz” and that she’s “pretty devastated” by what happened because “it’s an amazing film.” She said she’d “want to do it” if there were some way to “complete it, salvage it,” but she doesn’t seem to have much confidence.
Variety’s Marc Malkin set her up to get specific (there’s a video on Variety’s story), but Palmer declined to specifically mention Murray and simply noted that Ansari would “probably have to do a major rewrite” in order to finish the movie. What she’s saying implies that Murray is so integral to the movie as it is that you can’t just cut him out, but the fact that she’s saying she’d do anything she could to “salvage it” but is only offering a “major rewrite” as a suggestion seems to indicate that she has no interest in continuing on with Murray. (Though that’s all conjecture from us.)
Either way, all of this sounds like bad news for the future of Being Mortal, which was supposed to be a fictionalized version of Atul Gawande’s memoir of the same name. The book details his life as a doctor and how modern society handles end-of-life care, and the movie probably would have as well.
33 Comments
This would never have happened if he had total consciousness.
Murrays behavior is well known in Hollywood and Aziz hired him anyway. Pretty much got what you deserved.
Digitally replace Bill Murray with Tig Notaro.
Hell, do it for every movie he has ever made.
Dumbest comment ever. Dude is freaking comedic genius and one of the all time greats.At least could have made ur dumb comment with someone who is atleast a well known… lol
It was a comment based on the fact that Tig Notaro was digitally placed into a film (“Army of the Dead”) to replace an actor (Chris D’Elia) who had been accused of sexual misconduct. Know your pop culture, dingus.
Reminds me of when someone here made a joke about Christopher Plummer replacing some recently disgraced actor, and a bunch of folks replied doing variations on a super condescending “Who’s gonna tell him???” bit. We’re on a pop culture website, smh.
Too bad we can’t do that joke in Deadpool 3 now.
He’s mid tier at best, he also punched his wife in the face and told her “you’re lucky I don’t kill you”, thankfully they’re divorced now.
tig notaro, ironically, is also a ‘freaking’ comedic genius and one of the all time greats.
Um, no. No they aren’t. They’re fine, but no.
Issa joke
The ghost of Christopher Plummer is available.
Alternately, fire Murray and reshoot with Steven Martin or Marc Marcon.
I don’t suppose they could… Tropic Thunder it… you know continue filming without them knowing they’re being filmed. While also indirectly giving them direction without them knowing they’re receiving direction?
No, a Tropic Thunder is where the actors think they’re being filmed, but instead filming has actually stopped somehow and they then mistake something else they come across as part of the film. What you’re thinking of sounds more like a Bowfinger, where they shoot a film guerrilla-style and try to film scenes with the actor they want as the lead without the actor ever realizing that they’re in a film.
A Kiss From Mary Pickford (although the wet blankets at Wikipedia say otherwise).“Fairbanks died without knowing of the film’s existence. Pickford reportedly learned of the film in the late 1940s, but her reaction is unknown.” https://silentfilm.org/a-kiss-from-mary-pickford/
But if memory serves they didn’t do the movie in Bowfinger with the actor they wanted. Instead they used a lookalike to shoot additional scenes and finish their movie. I wonder if there are any Bill Murray lookalikes.
Just finish the movie and keep him away from people as best as possible. My gosh. People love to overreact these days…
“Because I don’t like the actor now” is a potentially solid reason to recast a role and reshoot their scenes, but a lot less solid of a reason to rewrite the script itself.
Reshooting all of an actor’s scenes most of the way through filming could be an expensive option, depending on how many scenes and locations they’re in and how much interaction they have with the rest of the cast.I’d guess that might be why Palmer skipped past that to the option of rewriting so they can use what they’ve shot with Murray, but don’t need to shoot more scenes with him.
So basically all celebrities are terrible in one way or another. Is it that these type of people are drawn to show business or does it turn them into these types of people?
In a moral sense it’s not be the best option, but practically speaking…how hard would it be to finish the film without the production member who filed the complaint against Murray?
thats probably why most complaints against stars get swept under the rug
I think pretty hard. The production has been shut down for months, so the crew has probably moved on to other projects, and they’re also down two cast members. That’s assuming that they have any budget left. And that there aren’t any formal restrictions on reopening a production that was closed down under these circumstances.
there’s too many variables, man. we’ll never know things like, for example, how much of the funding was contingent on them funding ‘a bill murray movie’. hard to get MORE money from an investor like that to finish a movie that no longer has bill murray.edit: oh i see you’re saying fire the person who complained. nm.
So, someone gets mistreated and you just let her go and move on with the mistreat-er? How dat work
Given that you would be firing someone for being sexually assualted the pending lawsuit would probably screw up funding.
In a moral sense, it’s also not the best option to even consider that as a possible course of action. That’s some Harvey Weinstein-caliber shit right there.
Oh yeah cool let’s fire the person who made the complaint and keep the person who did the thing. That won’t very strongly discourage anyone from ever making a complaint about inappropriate behavior ever again or anything.
This is actually a well written summary. No shade or snark thrown and provisos included. Good job Sam.
two options have set precedent Brainstorm finishing filming after Natalie Wood’s Deathhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorm_(1983_film)The feud between the actors on the Good Wife… filmed scenes separately then digitally integratedhttps://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/archie-panjabi-reacts-to-good-wife-bar-scene-with-julianna-margulies/