Bill Murray prefers messy characters and admits he has also 'done some damage'

Bill Murray is getting candid about his life — but he isn't getting specific.

On Sunday, the Riff Raff actor made a surprise appearance at the Sundance Film Festival to reflect on his career in the Elvis Suite presented by Darling&Co. Among his many musings, Murray shared that the roles he finds most rewarding are complicated characters.

"It’s always interesting when you’re playing a guy who has done some damage," Murray explained, pointing vaguely to his own life. "I know I’ve done some damage. It's unconscious damage, but it's some sort of penance to play them and to show that, you know, to show accepting responsibility for it."

Related: Lucy Liu doesn't regret confronting Bill Murray amid Charlie's Angels clash: 'I am going to protect myself'

Murray named On the Rocks as a good example of what he means. The 2020 film from Sofia Coppola explores a grown woman's relationship with her emotionally distant playboy father.

"I was answering for a lot of things through that role," Murray said.

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Though he didn't directly address any controversies during the Sunday chat, Murray's career hit pause in 2022 after an incident on the set of Being Mortal. Searchlight Pictures halted production over complaints about Murray’s inappropriate on-set behavior with a young female assistant.

In the wake of the incident, Murray said, "I did something I thought was funny, and it wasn't taken that way. The company, the movie studio, wanted to do the right thing, so they wanted to check it all out, investigate it, and so they stopped the production. But as of now, we're talking and we're trying to make peace with each other."

The movie, which marked the directorial debut of Aziz Ansari and costarred Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer, never resumed filming.

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At the time, Murray described the incident as a learning experience: "The world is different than it was when I was a little kid," he said. "What I always thought was funny as a little kid isn't necessarily the same as what's funny now. Things change and the times change, so it's important for me to figure it out. And I think the most important thing is that it's best for the other person."

During his conversation with Mitchell, Murray acknowledged that he has slowed down over the last years, explaining, per Variety, “I’ve been lazy. I don’t have an agent anymore, so I’m not the first person people think of to be in studio movies.”

But he added that recent work in indie movies has reinvigorated him.

“Only in this last year, doing these has reawakened me about searching for material,” he said. “I’ve lived the life of a bass… waiting for something to come down at me. If something lands in my mouth, I’ll eat it."

The actor is next set to appear in The Phoenician Scheme, the latest from Wes Anderson. Murray has also worked with the writer-director on 9 prior films, including The French Dispatch and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

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