Lucy Liu: Bill Murray Made ‘Unacceptable and Inexcusable’ Insults on ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Set

Lucy Liu joined the Los Angeles Times’ “Asian Enough” podcast this week and reflected on a tense encounter she had with Bill Murray during the making of the 2000 action movie “Charlie’s Angels.” Liu had one of the lead roles in the movie opposite Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore, while Murray starred in the supporting role of Bosley. A long-standing rumor from the set claims Murray dissed Liu as “a television actress.” Liu would not reveal the specifics of Murray’s behavior, but she did say he used “inexcusable and unacceptable” language.

“As we’re doing the scene, Bill starts to sort of hurl insults, and I won’t get into the specifics, but it kept going on and on,” Liu said. “I was, like, ‘Wow, he seems like he’s looking straight at me.’ I couldn’t believe that [the comments] could be towards me, because what do I have to do with anything majorly important at that time?“

Liu continued, “I literally do the look around my shoulder thing, like, who is he talking to behind me? I say, ‘I’m so sorry. Are you talking to me?’ And clearly he was, because then it started to become a one-on-one communication. Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it. So, yes, I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it. Because no matter how low on the totem pole you may be or wherever you came from, there’s no need to condescend or to put other people down. And I would not stand down, and nor should I have.”

According to NME, Murray himself addressed the rumor in 2009 by saying, “Look, I will dismiss you completely if you are unprofessional and working with me…When our relationship is professional, and you’re not getting that done, forget it.”

Whatever tension existed between Liu and Murray was eventually squashed. “I have nothing against Bill Murray at all,” Liu said on the “Asian Enough” podcast. “I’ve seen him since then at an ‘SNL’ reunion, and he came up to me and was perfectly nice. But I’m not going to sit there and be attacked.”