"Charlie's Angels" Crew Member Shares His Account Of What Happened Between Lucy Liu and Bill Murray

[Cicada 5]

Avid fans of the film series or film trivia in general are aware of the rumors that have circulated for years that Bill Murray, the first film’s Bosley, did not get along with Lucy Liu, which led to him being replaced for the film’s sequel (Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle) by the late, great Bernie Mac.

The reports detailing what exactly happened have varied, but recently, a viral tweet prompted a former crew member to speak up and provide their account of what happened on set. The viral tweet in question contained a screenshot of an article about the incident, alleging that Murray had interrupted a take to insult Liu’s acting, to which Liu supposedly responded by attempting to physically fight back before the two were separated.

The crew member who came forward in response to this tweet, Shaun O’Banion, is credited on IMDB as a production assistant on the film. O’Banion now works as a producer and runs his own production company. O’Banion tweeted the following:

Basically, Murray rewrote a bunch of scenes without telling anyone (including Drew who was a producer). He put the new pages in everyone’s trailers & everyone came to set wondering where the hell the new pages had come from. Murray was the last to step on stage and by that (1?)

(2?) time there was already mass confusion. Mc G (director) was pissed that no one had consulted him. The AD’s were also pissed. Drew’s producing partner came in and Murray was like, “what’s going on?” Mc G was like, “did you get new pages in your trailer?” And Murray was like,

(3?) “No. But I put new pages in everyone else’s trailer.” Drew and her partner were pretty upset by this. Murray was like, “I’m making it better, ok? You’ve got, like, 16 writers on this thing…” and Lucy spoke up, saying something like, “this is way out of line.” Murray turned

(4/?) and said, I don’t know what you’re complaining about. I have you more lines. I mean… look who you’re in with here. You’re TV… and this is the big league.” At that point Lucy shouted, “Fuck you, you fucking cocksucker!” And the AD’s promptly cleared the stage as Lucy ran

(5/?) off the stage crying. Cameron was trying to be the peacekeeper and protect Drew as the AD’s cleared the stage. Of course all of us in production had to stay inside to keep people out. I love Bill Murray (and had worked with him before), but what he said to her was totally

(6/6) uncalled for. Really belittling and shitty. This was pretty early in the process too, and the crew already really liked Lucy (and Cameron and Drew). Anyway. No punches were thrown. At least not physically. He later apologized though not entirely sincerely imho

Charlie’s Angels Crew Member Shares What Really Happened in Lucy Liu, Bill Murray Conflict

Charlie's Angels (2000) crew member Shaun O’Banion, has spoken out on the truth behind the famous story of conflict between Lucy Liu and Bill Murray.

www.themarysue.com

 

[Thaluikhain]

Huh. Never even heard there was any drama like that for that film, but can't say I'm an avid fan.

 

[BrawlMan]

I never knew of the drama either. I did not care much for the Charlie's Angel films from the early 2000s. Sucks that Bill Murray chose to be a dick for no reason. Lucy Liu can fucking act, and last I checked Murray don't get the final fucking word.

 

[happyninja42]

I remember hearing about that, I think first from that Robot Chicken skit about it.

But, yeah I hardly find this surprising. Guys like Bill and Chevy Chase, who built an entire career around being as asshole, are actually assholes IRL? *shock* *gasps in spanish* Say it ain't so!

Reminds me of the drama I heard about on Community with Chevy, and was just like "Well yeah, what did anyone expect?" They're bitter old men, whose style of comedy has died out, and they are now in Old Man Yells at Cloud territory.

 

[Piscian]

*shrug* Eye Of the Beholder and all that.

I thought the Charlie's angels movies were awful. One thing to note about Bill Murray is that when you pay him to be in movies he doesn't want to be in he tends to act out or offer changes. You ask Jim Jarmusch or Wes Anderson and they'll tell you he's a joy to work with and a positive influence on production. however he is one of those actors that believes films should be a collaborative process between actors, writers and directors. When he does corporate shovelware I'm not surprised itd turn out poorly. He'd say its the studio fault for not knowing what they're in for when they hire Bill Murray simply for name recognition. He was supposedly an ass on that GhostBusters remake set as well. I have a lot of Respect for Bill Murray, he's very open about the person he is, the struggles he's gone through and he's super nice to fans.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Reminds me of the drama I heard about on Community with Chevy, and was just like "Well yeah, what did anyone expect?" They're bitter old men, whose style of comedy has died out, and they are now in Old Man Yells at Cloud territory.

This already seemed like a thing with Murray early on though. Apparently he was kind of an asshole to Richard Dreyfuss too on the set of What About Bob, and that was back in 1991. Whether Bill is actually just an asshole, or he just makes no attempt to hide it when he takes a set against someone, or this is his way of trolling, I don't know.

 

[happyninja42]

This already seemed like a thing with Murray early on though. Apparently he was kind of an asshole to Richard Dreyfuss too on the set of What About Bob, and that was back in 1991. Whether Bill is actually just an asshole, or he just makes no attempt to hide it when he takes a set against someone, or this is his way of trolling, I don't know.

That's kind of the definition of an asshole. He's never seemed like anything other than an asshole to me. I mean I think there is a reason he was always typecast as that character in pretty much everything he did. He doesn't have a lot of range, but the one thing he does do well, be an asshole, was very marketable for a long time.

 

[Adam Jensen]

Considering how shitty those movies are, chances are that his rewrite would have made it better. But that ain't gonna happen if you're being an asshole about it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

That's kind of the definition of an asshole. He's never seemed like anything other than an asshole to me. I mean I think there is a reason he was always typecast as that character in pretty much everything he did. He doesn't have a lot of range, but the one thing he does do well, be an asshole, was very marketable for a long time.

I guess there's variations of being an asshole, and Bill Murray was always the more laid-back, sardonic kind, which has been seen as charming by a lot of people. Not that he needs to be the chillest guy all the time - everyone can lose their temper sometimes - but it seems Murray can really go after someone for no apparent reason. I mean, even if you're stuck acting in trash you show respect for the people you work with. You'd think Murray would've learned a bit of humility seeing the career dip he had all through the 90's. Though I could very well just be making assumptions.