Bill Murray slept through a press conference celebrating his lifetime achievement award at Rome Film Fest

Actor was honoured by long-time collaborator and friend Wes Anderson

Ellie Harrison
Monday 21 October 2019 10:20 BST
Comments
Bill Murray plays golf in the White House with Barack Obama

Bill Murray failed to attend a press conference celebrating his lifetime achievement award at Rome Film Fest because he was asleep.

The actor slept through the planned event on Saturday according to The Hollywood Reporter, but later appeared at a Close Encounter public talk led by Wes Anderson, who he has worked with on nine different films, and festival director Antonio Monda.

Honouring his friend, director Anderson told a typically bizarre anecdote about when he first met Murray on the set of his 1998 film Rushmore.

Anderson said Murray emerged from some bushes on set followed by “10-12 men” who came “scrambling out behind him dressed in business suits”.

“They were the salesmen from a Jaguar car dealership around the corner where Bill had gone in-between takes,” said Anderson. “Somehow he had gone for a test drive and he came back with the entire sales force.”

Anderson explained that Murray’s new friends stayed on set throughout the week. “I think they probably didn’t meet their quota of selling Jaguars that week, but I wouldn’t be stunned if at least one or two of them made some big changes in his life right then, and maybe stopped selling Jaguars and did something else. I know that happens because it happened to me.”

Murray has worked with Anderson for more than two decades on films including The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs and Moonrise Kingdom. He will next be seen in Anderson’s upcoming movie The French Dispatch.

Rome Film Fest runs until 27 October, with its second lifetime achievement award of the year set to honour Viola Davis.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in