Bill Murray: ‘Difference of opinion’ led to complaint

Roughly two weeks after Searchlight Pictures suspended production on the film “Being Mortal” to investigate a complaint filed against Bill Murray, the actor described the inciting incident as “a difference of opinion.”

On Saturday, Murray attended Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, where he sat down with CNBC for an on-camera interview. Murray, a shareholder, was asked about the production shutdown first reported April 20 by Deadline, which the next day named Murray as the subject of the complaint.

“I had a difference of opinion with a woman I’m working with,” Murray told CNBC. “I did something I thought was funny and it wasn’t taken that way. The company — the movie studio — wanted to do the right thing, so they wanted to check it all out and investigate it, and so they stopped the production.”

Murray said he and the woman who filed the complaint are “trying to make peace with each other.”

“We’re both professionals,” he added. “We like each other’s work. We like each other, I think. If we can’t really get along and trust each other, there’s no point in going further working together or making the movie as well.”

Searchlight confirmed the suspension but said it does not comment on investigations. “Being Mortal,” based on surgeon Atul Gawande’s book of the same name, is comedian Aziz Ansari’s directorial feature debut. Deadline reported the film, which also stars Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer, was halfway through filming.

Someone close to the production who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation previously told The Washington Post they believed most crew members to be “extremely sad and heartbroken that this particular production is shutting down” because “for many people, this was the best set they had been on.”