We love to see people prove us wrong, and show us that they are always more than meets the eye. The concept of movie stardom is built around the idea of packaging and presenting a person to audiences in a particular way that’s been proven to be already satisfying, so letting it be known that a star can give us more than initially promised is exciting. An actor finding that new gear can be the difference between continued relevance and getting forgotten by the silver screen. Can you imagineJim Carreygetting the love as a true actor he now has without himdoingThe Truman ShoworEternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? OrMelissa McCarthyturning in one of the best performances of her career inCan You Ever Forgive Me?Perish the thought. Worse yet, imagineBill Murraynot showing us the caverns of empathy he had buried inside of him all along. We would have lived in that reality, were it not forWes Andersonfirst thinking of casting him in his iconic landmark,Rushmore.
Bill Murray Based His Persona Around Insincerity
Once Bill Murray became a huge comedy star from his time onSaturday Night Liveand moved on to movies, he quickly established a comedic persona built around gravitating between slobby losers with no self-awareness, or slacker losers who took pride in their louche contentment. FromMeatballstoCaddyshack, fromGhostbusterstoGroundhog Day, Murray spent his younger days glorifying the concept of simply not giving a damn about anything happening in your life and being okay with that. He managed to make that funny by either letting us know his disgusting wretches had a good heart buried underneath all the garbage or by giving so little a damn that it somehow boomeranged around into that being the joke itself. In any other movie, his performanceinGhostbusterswould have been atrocious, as he can’t even pretend to acknowledge a spirit floating right in front of him; however, when he’s theonlyperson acting that way and everyone else is totally in the tank on ghosts being real, it’s a hysterical contrast precisely because it spits in the face of the film’s reality.Scroogedhas a similar logic, but in reverse, where his character of Frank Cross is so violently overinvested in being angry all the time that his “redemption” moment takes on an otherworldly sincerity that would makeNicolas Cagejealous. Murray’s ability to commit to the bit of smothering his real feelings in either extreme apathy or extreme euphoria was his secret weapon that he spent a good decade or two refining.
This isn’t to say that he never tried his hand at more dramatic films. Sprinkled throughout his Comedy Hall of Fame entries is a number of genuinely earnest dramas, likeWhere the Buffalo Roam(aHunter S. Thompsonfilm years beforeFear and Loathing in Las Vegas) orThe Razor’s Edge, where Murray put all his chips on shedding his comedic skin and taking a serious spin. The issue wound up being that those films put him so far outside his comfort zone that he seemed lost as to how to properly convey any real emotion at all. It doesn’t help that his general mannerisms are so idiosyncratic that the idea of him playing a real person, even one as eccentric as Hunter S. Thompson, struck a jangly tone that didn’t sit right with people. Furthermore, his taste for dramatic films simply wasn’t that strong, as many of his dramatic films fared poorly with critics, who were quick to point out how out of place he was. He fared better with generally comedic films that allowed him to have a somewhat lighter touch, like his appearances inEd WoodorMad Dog and Glory, where he was still primarily geared towards being comedic without being saddled with his usual shtick. But that could only last for so long, and after falling back into doing his usual song and dance, somebody showed him a new path.
Why Bill Murray Wanted to Work With Wes Anderson
When Wes Anderson sat down to formulate his story of aprecocious young studentnamed Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) and his ongoing rivalry with a hopelessly resigned industrialist named Herman Blume (Murray), Anderson could only see Bill Murray for the role, being a massive fan of his since childhood. When Murray was given the script forRushmoreby his agent, Murray flipped for it. He loved it so much that he insisted on beingpaid the lowest possible salary of $9,000, and when asked why,he explained: “The writing was so precise…a lot of ‘Rushmore’ is about the struggle to retain civility and kindness in the face of extraordinary pain. And I’ve felt a lot of that in my life…I play a guy who’s aware that his life is not working, but he’s still holding on, hoping something will happen and that’s what’s most interesting. In life, you never have to completely quit.'' Murray felt an instant kinship to Herman Blume, but why? AsGavin Edwardsargues inhis bookThe Tao of Bill Murray, it’s because the script “showed how a smart-aleck young man could grow into a world-weary middle-aged man.” Murray recognized the arc of what happens when you spend so much time avoiding getting burnt from human connection that you still wind up burnt out on everything.
‘Rushmore’Has One of Bill Murray’s Best Performances
Herman Blume is one of the great Bill Murray characters, as a man who’s suffering from an extended slow car crash existential crisis, knowing he’s letting his life pass by him and barely having the energy to fight it. The best he can muster is acting out petty grievances, constantly complaining about his idiot sons, throwing golf balls into swimming pools, and swatting a kid’s basketball in the middle of a game. It’s not enough that he is miserable, he must also ensure the misery of others. This is why he flies off the handle so badly when he realizes Max is also into his crush, Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams), as he sees Rosemary as the only bright spot in his life. This makes it all the sweeter when, after their ongoing civil war has reached a boiling point, she’s the one to call out that Max and Herman deserve each other because “you’re both little children.” It’s a perfect summation of his character, and it informs how Murray plays him.
Forget an Agent! This Is How You Hire Bill Murray For Acting Roles
And even this method doesn’t necessarily guarantee a response.
Herman is a sullen and withdrawn person, but this is the rare Murray performance where that surliness exudes a sheepish defensiveness, rather than a simmering rage. Murray underlines Herman with the diffidence of a child who’s been humiliated in front of the class one too many times and won’t let it go. While he still retains some of the smarm that made him famous, it’s been rendered utterly toothless by how pathetic his demeanor is. This speaks to the way Murray connects us to the underlying tragedy of this man’s life, filtering his antics through the emphasis on how stuck in emotional sickness Herman is, ruing the way his life has panned out. This ability to hone in on a particular emotional undercurrent would prove to be the skeleton key that would unlock the avenues through which Bill Murray could continue to explore more diverse characters.
Murray’s Niche Became Playing Men With Unresolved Pain
AfterRushmorecame out, it got Bill Murray some of the best reviews of his career, receiving a lot of praise for his low-key turn that came with real pathos. The success led to him forging a lifelong collaboration with Wes Anderson that would see him play several men with stunted emotional states. These range from the emotionally blank Raleigh St. Clair fromThe Royal Tenenbaums, the ruthlessly driven Steve Zissou fromThe Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, and the easily irritated Badger fromFantastic Mr. Fox. Beyond Anderson’s films, the best uses of Murray’s newfound angle were treasured auteurs using him as a vessel to explore the themes they’re most interested in for that specific film.Jim Jarmuschcast him inBroken Flowersas a depressed womanizer who must reckon with the emptiness of the love life he’d previously led, with Murray delivering a performance that quivers with the unwelcome memory of numerous failed romances that he hasn’t had to deal with for half of a lifetime.Theodore Melficast Murray as the titularSt. Vincent, a curmudgeonly veteran whose outer shell is chipped away to reveal a gooey heart, depending on Murray’s presence to elevate what is otherwise a fairly sitcom-level story.Sofia Coppolahas done this twice; first, she gave Murray thebest role of his career inLost in Translation, where he carries a lifetime of disconnected disappointment with masterful grace. Then, nearly 20 years later,he’s the lead inOn the Rocks, where he’s a dashing playboy who must confront how out of touch he is with his daughter.
All of these roles depend on Bill Murray showing us he’s riding the wave of ever-present pain humming under the surface while denying he’s even on a surfboard. He gives the type of performances that seem like copies of each other until you key into the spacing of the words and the shifting tonality in his moods. It takes a special actor tospeak in a whisper so hushed that it inspires fan theories for literal years, just because we grow to care so deeply about what his words actually mean. It’s a rare breed to convince us to empathize by being so seemingly uncaring, so incapable of sharing their feelings with anyone else. Film acting specifically is catered to capturing the nuances of each expression and acting like an X-ray into the soul, and few actors have been more equipped to capitalize on our ability to respond to the buried truth thanthe ever-elusive Bill Murray.
Rushmoreis available to rent on Amazon in the US.
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