‘Groundhog Day’ writer says Bill Murray wasn’t ‘afraid to be cruel’ on set

Workplace misconduct allegations have finally come for everybody’s favorite actor and comedian turned urban legend Bill Murray. And now as we approach the 30th anniversary of his seminal 1993 film Groundhog Day, it’s impossible to talk about the film without bringing up the 72-year-old’s behavior during its development and filming.

For years, Murray’s reputation for being combative or inappropriate on set was already Hollywood’s worst-kept secret. But things exploded last year when his Aziz Ansari-directed Searchlight Pictures film Being Mortal was put on ice indefinitely due to alleged on-set misconduct. And shortly after, Geena Davis confirmed that he had been a nightmare to work with on the set of their 1990 action-comedy Quick Change.

However Groundhog Day was famously the film that caused Murray and his longtime collaborator Harold Ramis to have a falling out that would last decades — Murray reportedly only came around when Ramis was on his deathbed in 2014 — and according to screenplay writer Danny Rubin, the actor wasn’t “afraid to be cruel.”

Ramis and Rubin made the comments in the 2002 documentary Groundhog Day: The Weight of Time, according to The Guardian. (Murray did not participate.)

At the heart of it is Murray’s career-best performance. As director Harold Ramis foresaw, Murray was the only actor who could make the callous, narcissistic Phil Connors likable to the audience. “He seems to come by the nasty part quite honestly,” Ramis said wryly in the making-of documentary. “Bill Murray is not a movie star by accident, he understands vanity and self-centredness.” Rubin is kinder, merely saying that Murray was “not afraid to be cruel.”

Rubin also had to act as an early buffer between Murray and Ramis, who had been regular collaborators since the 1970s but fell out during the making of the film. During the writer’s trip to New York with Murray to hone the lead character’s dialogue, if Ramis would call to discuss the film, Murray would shake his head and mouth the words: “I’m not here.”

By the time they made Groundhog Day, Murray and Ramis had already collaborated on several comedies that would go on to become classics, including Stripes, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters. We can only imagine what future collaborations the two could have brought to life if Murray had been able to set aside his differences sooner.