What Bill Murray Has Said About His Sexual Misconduct Scandal

It has been several years since allegations of sexual misconduct were leveled against Bill Murray, and the famously mercurial star has opened up about the claims. According to Murray, the allegations — which led to the halt of production on the film he was working on at the time, "Being Mortal" — still haunt him to this day. "I don't go too many days or weeks without thinking of what happened in 'Being Mortal,'" Murray said in an interview with The New York Times in April. "I tried to make peace. I thought I was trying to make peace. I ended up being, to my mind, barbecued."

As Murray recalls, he was on set with a crew member who he'd befriended during the pandemic-era production. This meant that everyone on set was wearing a mask, and Murray thought it would be funny to kiss this woman through their masks. "I dunno what prompted me to do it. It's something that I had done to someone else before, and I thought it was funny," Murray said. "It wasn't like I touched her, but it was just, I gave her a kiss through a mask."

When the incident occurred in April 2022, the film was halted and Searchlight Pictures initiated an internal investigation. The woman claimed Murray straddled her on a bed and kissed her through her mask. Murray and the unnamed production assistant entered mediation and Murray eventually settled for $100,000 in October 2022, but production on the film never resumed.

After questions arose surrounding the cause of the production shutdown, the actor confirmed that he'd been the cause of the on-set issue. Speaking with CNBC weeks after the film came to a halt, in April 2022, Murray said it all boiled down to a "difference of opinion" between himself and a crew member, but didn't go into specifics.

However, Murray admitted that the experience was "an education" for him, explaining, "The world is different than it was when I was a little kid. 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." Speaking with The New York Times in April 2025, a full three years later, Murray says he still feels his intent was simply to "keep the mood light" on the set of a film that revolves around hospice care and a man dealing with his ailing father's impending death.

As for the stories of his less-than-genial behavior in the past — including an alarming interaction with a young Seth Green and his own complicated relationship history — Murray told the publication that people began looking for other unflattering stories to build a negative narrative. "When someone has an episode like mine on 'Being Mortal,' the world goes searching for more proof that this person is a monster," Murray claimed.