Actress Keke Palmer (“The Old Guard,” “Nope”) says her work in Aziz Ansari’s feature directorial debut “Being Mortal” may not see the light of day.
Back in April, the film suspended production with about a month of shooting left to go after a complaint about co-star Bill Murray’s inappropriate behavior was filed.
It hasn’t resumed, and distributor Searchlight Pictures is reportedly no longer involved. Palmer, appearing at the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles on Saturday evening, tells Variety she doesn’t know if the film will ever be completed:
“If somebody could figure it out, it would be Aziz. Obviously, we got cut short at a certain point, but I will say that I am pretty devastated. It’s an amazing film. If there is some way to be able to complete, and salvage it, I would want to do it. [Ansari] would probably have to do a major rewrite, but I know what we got was gold.”
Palmer didn’t address the Murray controversy, which has raged over the weekend. Puck News (via The Playlist) had a new report last week claiming a settlement was made with a young woman who worked on the film’s set as the allegations against Murray were reportedly worse than the ‘inappropriate joke’ the actor previously described it as.
Shortly after that a series of stories emerged from numerous actors about Murray’s behavior on film and TV sets over the years. Excerpts from Oscar-winner Geena Davis’ new memoir offered her account of working with Murray on “Quick Change” in 1990. Murray reportedly insisted on using a massage machine on her back despite her refusing multiple times. He later allegedly screamed at her on set in front of more than 300 people over a wardrobe delay beyond her control.
Former SNL alum Rob Schneider, appearing on SiriusXM’s The Jim Norton & Sam Roberts Show this week, claimed Murray “absolutely hated” the show’s cast members when he came back to guest host: “Absolutely hated us. I mean, seething. He hated Chris Farley with a passion. Like he was just seething looking at him… really hated [Adam] Sandler, too. It was just naked rage.”
Actor Seth Green also spoke about the first time he had an altercation with Murray on the SNL set when he was nine years old and Murray guest hosted. Green, speaking with Good Mythical Morning (via Uproxx) was sitting backstage watching TV with Eddie Murphy when Murray came in and made a fuss about Green being on the arm of a couch which Murray dubbed ‘my chair’. Green says:
“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 trash can.’ And I was screaming, and I swung my arms, flailed wildly, full contact with his balls. He dropped me in the trash can, the trash can falls over. I was horrified. I ran away, hid under the table in my dressing room and just cried.”
Green decided he did not want to appear, but Murphy and fellow SNL cast member Tim Kazurinsky encouraged him to perform. Green said he hasn’t seen Murray since the incident and added: “I do feel like it’s important to say, I love Bill Murray’s work, and I consider him one of the most important cultural icons that we have… but when I was nine years old, he was very rude.”
It’s expected there will be more to this story in the coming weeks.
