When Seth Green And Rob Schneider Dropped Bombs On Bill Murray
Bill Murray’s public image is having a rough week. Following a report that the TV and film legend paid over $100,000 to settle a dispute surrounding inappropriate behavior on the set of Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut film Being Mortal, many entertainers are coming out of the woodwork to add their own stories of Murray’s less-savory side to the dogpile that’s quickly forming atop the comedy icon.
Seth Green and Rob Schneider both recently shared horror stories from Murray’s multiple appearances as the host of Saturday Night Live. These accounts paint a picture of an immature, insecure, and pernicious figure that stands in stark contrast to the image Murray previously enjoyed in the media as America’s favorite fatherly funny-man, and they leave us wondering, “which comedian whose heyday was in the 2000’s is going to ruin Ghostbusters for us next?”
Yesterday, Seth Green appeared on comedy duo Rhett and Link’s morning web series “Good Mythical Morning” where Seth was asked the question, “who is the rudest celebrity you’ve ever met?” Seth answered with a story from his 1981 appearance on Saturday Night Live where Green, a seven-year-old child actor at the time, made the grave mistake of sitting in Bill Murray’s seat in the green room. Said Green about that night’s host, “He saw me sitting on the arm of this chair and made a big fuss about me being in his seat. And I was like, ‘That is absurd, I’m sitting on the arm of this couch, there are several lengths of this sofa, kindly, F off.’”
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But Bill Murray did not F off. Instead, according to Green, “he picked me up by my ankles… held me upside down… He dangled me over a trash can, and he was like, ‘the trash goes in the trashcan!’... He dropped me in the trash can, the trash can falls over, and I was horrified!” Green recalled running out of the room crying, only for Eddie Murphy to come to his aid and coax the child-actor out of his Murray-induced meltdown. Eddie Murphy apparently told Green, “Hey, everybody knows Bill’s a d—... You be a pro. The show must go on, you be a pro. You’re a pro, right?” At least one SNL legend knows how to talk to kids.
Also yesterday, Rob Schneider appeared on “The Jim and Sam Show” with Jim Norton and Sam Roberts where Schneider recalled his own experience with the ego of the man willing to toss a child into a trashcan like a bully from one of Schneider’s movies. Rob remembered the time Bill returned to host SNL during Rob’s six-year tenure as both a writer and performer. Rob recalled being warned about Murray’s mean streak, saying that an unnamed filmmaker told Rob “(Bill Murray’s) gonna change the dialogue. He’s gonna change things, and it’s gonna be great, but you don’t know who you’re gonna get. Which Bill Murray you’re gonna get. The nice Bill Murray? Or you’re gonna get the tough Bill Murray?”
The tough Bill Murray showed up to work that day, and as Schneider tells it, “He hated us on Saturday Night Live when he hosted. Absolutely hated us. I mean, seething. He hated Chris Farley with a passion. Like he was just seething looking at him.” But Farley wasn’t the only beloved cast member who somehow earned Murray’s ire – his best friend and partner Adam Sandler drew a similarly seething hatred according to Schneider. He says that Murray hated Adam Sandler because Murray “just wasn’t into that groove of it, you know? And Sandler was just committed to it, and just like … as soon as he would get on, you could see the audience just ate him up.”
Schneider made sure to clarify that Bill Murray wasn’t quite indiscriminate with his hatred, noting that, “The least of the hate was to me. I took great pleasure in that he hated me less, because he’s my hero.”
It seems like any time news breaks about a celebrity’s dark side, it opens the floodgates for anyone who had been holding onto salacious stories to come forward with their own negative experiences. Schneider and Green probably won’t be the last to lament their time with the comedy curmudgeon, so strap in and remind yourself that there ain’t no heroes in showbusiness.
Top Image: Broadway Video
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