Inside Brittany Murphy's 'Hard Time' in the Months Before Her Death: She 'Deserved a Different Story' (Exclusive)

One hot day in June 2009, Brittany Murphy was busy on set. The jail cell where she was filming was boiling, the crew was sweating, and the star wanted to make sure everyone had enough water. Six months later, Murphy was found dead in her home.

The 32-year-old was discovered passed out in the bathroom of the home she shared with her British screenwriter husband Simon Monjack and her mom Sharon, with her cause of death listed as pneumonia.

Costars from her final film Something Wicked recall a frail star who was a shell of herself in those months prior to her untimely death 15 years ago.

"She was just a little bird that you wanted to be around and you wanted to help," Katie O'Grady tells PEOPLE.

In her final days, the Uptown Girls star had grown increasingly sick with flu-like symptoms. She passed out in her mom's arms after telling her, "Mommy, I can't catch my breath. Help me," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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"She was really sick with pneumonia, very anemic, and she was taking medication, and all that combined killed her," Coroner Asst. Chief Ed Winter told PEOPLE at the time. Five months later, Monjack died, his autopsy eerily similar to Murphy's, listing anemia and pneumonia as the cause of death.

There had been alarming signs of Murphy's mental and physical state on the set of Something Wicked, O'Grady recalls. The actress first met Murphy on set in Eugene, Oregon. She remembers her as being "frail" and noticeably "going through a hard time," with the cast and crew generally getting the sense "to be soft around her."

She was "petite" and so small she could be simply "scooped up" with little effort," says O'Grady.

"Her eyes were so sunken, and she just seemed so sad," Something Wicked makeup artist Trista Jordan said in the 2021 documentary What Happened, Brittany Murphy?, now streaming on Max. "She wasn't herself. She was in so much pain. She had Bambi legs and couldn't stand up."

O'Grady had noticed Murphy had limited energy. But what she did have, she put entirely into her work — and making sure others were okay.

"You could just feel a really deep kindness, a soft spirit about Brittany, that it made you just feel comfortable and soft," she says.

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Despite an impressive résumé that included 1995's Clueless, 1999's Girl, Interrupted, 2003's Just Married and 2004's Little Black Book, Murphy never acted like the famous star she was. Instead, she put her energy into making others feel special.

When a younger novice costar struggled with where to look during a close-up, Murphy took the time to teach her about eye lines, instructing her where to look depending on what side of her face the camera was on, O'Grady recalls.

In a separate instance, another costar October Moore remembers getting ready to shoot a dramatic, confrontational scene with Murphy. The nerves were building as the two sat opposite one another at a tall bistro table, and Moore couldn't stop fidgeting with her slip-on shoes. Nervous, she looked up and met Murphy's eye — and the actress winked. "Just take them off," she whispered playfully.

"That was such a kindness from a seasoned professional to a very new actor," Moore says. "She made me feel very comfortable and at ease and just had this kind of effervescent sweetness."

When it came time to wrap the project, Murphy was using her last dredges of energy, says O'Grady, but she will never forget the "presence" of the starlet as she put her "little hand" in hers, telling her, "I'm so glad I got to meet you," as they parted ways for the final time.

"There was still some part of her so present and so loving to take the time to do that in such a soft way. It was such a kind and loving goodbye," O'Grady says. "She made moments and she created moments with everybody that she met to the best of her ability that she could with the energy that she had."

In her final years, Murphy lost a drastic amount of weight, with rumors — that she at one point denied — floating that she was struggling with an eating disorder. Murphy's noticeable low energy had worried O'Grady.

O'Grady remembers Murphy having low physical and mental strength, lacking someone to properly support her. "I just feel that she could have used somebody in her life that maybe was strong."

Related: Brittany Murphy Was 'Troubled' on Set of 2006 Film, Director Recalls: 'She Had a Lot of Demons'

Though she was known for her extremely close relationship with her mother, O'Grady and Moore say they never saw Sharon on set. Monjack, however, was constantly present and incredibly "protective" of Murphy, O'Grady says.

But O'Grady didn't get the sense that his presence was a positive one. "We know when we meet somebody that's not well, and an instant feeling of this woman needs to be protected, this woman needs strength, energy, support," she says.

Six months after Murphy said goodbye to her costars, she died, indefinitely postponing the film's release and leaving the cast of Something Wicked in a state of shock. O'Grady was left wishing Murphy had a "different story" and questioning what turns led to her death "because it's 100 little stops along the way to get there."

The movie eventually was released in 2014, but O'Grady and Moore remember the premiere as a somber occasion rather than celebratory. There was a "sense of sadness" among the cast, and O'Grady chose to forego ever seeing the film.

Today O'Grady is comforted by the fact that Murphy likely would have wanted the project to be seen, and says she is ready to watch the film and pay her final respects to the costar who touched her — and all those around her — so deeply.

"She really deserved a different story. Her core is so good. Her spirit is so good," she says. "That was not a person who was out in the world to hurt or make people feel small. That was not a woman who deserved that story. But that was her story and that was why she was here, and that was all that was meant to be."

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