WHEN: Saturday, April 30, 2022
WHERE:
Following is an excerpt from a CNBC exclusive interview with actor and comedian Bill Murray live from the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting today, Saturday, April 30th where he discusses the production suspension of “Being Mortal.” Following is a link to video on CNBC.com:
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
BECKY QUICK: Bill, I’ve known you for a long time. You’ve known Warren for a long time. This is the first time you’re actually coming to the meeting this last time around and those people at home didn’t get to see the movie. You were in, you were in the movie. You guys did a skit at the end of the movie that I guess you filmed a couple of weeks here. I want to get into all of your thoughts on the meeting today, why you’re here. But before we do, I’d just like to jump in. You’ve been in the headlines recently because of a movie you’ve been working on “Being Mortal.” Production was shut down and this is the first time you’re talking. I just wonder what happened?
MURRAY: Well, there’s a difference of, we had a difference of opinion. I had difference of opinion with a woman I’m working with. 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, investigate it and so they stopped the production. But as of now, we’re talking and we’re trying to make peace with each other. I think that’s where the real issue is between our peace. We’re both professionals. We like each other’s work. We like each other I think and if you can’t really get along and trust each other, there’s no point in going further working together or making a movie as well. It’s, it’s been, it’s been quite an education for me. I’ve been nothing, been doing not much else but thinking about it for the last week or two. And I feel like if I don’t if I don’t see that, you know, the world is different than it was when I was a little kid. You know, 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. And I think the most important thing is that it’s best for the other person. I thought about it and if it’s not best for the other person, doesn’t matter what happens for me. And that’s that gave me a great deal of comfort and relaxation because your brain doesn’t operate well when you’re in the unknown when you’re thinking like, well, how can I be so, how could I misperceive? How could I be so inaccurate and so insensitive when you think you’re being sensitive to some sensibility that you’ve had for a long time? So we’re talking about it. We’re, I think we’re gonna make peace with it. I’m very optimistic about that. You know, you have to be and, you know, I think it’s a sad dog that doesn’t, that can’t learn anymore. I really think that’s a really sad puppy that can’t learn anymore. I don’t want to be that sad dog and I have no intention of it. I’ve, what would make me the happiest would be to, you know, put my boots on and for both of us to go back into work and be able to trust each other and work at the work that we’ve both spent a lot of time developing the skill of and hopefully do something that’s good for more than just the two of us but for a whole crew of people, a whole crew of movie makers and the movie studio as well.
QUICK: So you’re talking it through right now. You’re talking it through with her? You’re talking it through with the studio?
MURRAY: Well not with the studio, just with her and people that are helping her. So that’s first things first.
QUICK: That’s good to hear. You said you were reflecting on some of the things that you heard today in the meeting and I take it it’s in relation to some of these things, too?
MURRAY: I couldn’t not connect it. I couldn’t not connect to it. I mean, I see these two brilliant fellas who are most proud, in a way, of their mistakes. You know, they get – and it’s always been that way. And in my life too, that you learn so much more from your mistakes than from your successes. And they say like oh, everybody’s doing the good things. But the hard things and the wrong things are where you really learn something. And you know, I was lucky to be with a bunch of other actors who were ahead of me in the pipeline sort of and I saw all the mistakes they made. And that helped me a great deal. And I know there’s people that are behind me in the pipeline that are watching my mistakes going okay, okay. I’m gonna pick – I’m not going to forget that one. This idea of being able to trust people, and really trying to have a long life. You know, I think like, you know, I feel like sometimes I feel like I’ve made a success of myself, but in the real moments, I realized, I don’t know anything. I really don’t know anything and that there’s so much more – you know, your life is full of so many moments and so much – so many emotions. And that you can’t say, oh, that’s mine, that’s the one I’m gonna go with all the way. Because that just puts you in a box. And you will make no further progress. I feel like I’ve learned more in the last year or two than I may have learned in maybe a whole decade of my life before. I never – because I wasn’t maybe aware it was happening. But just more awareness makes more – it just compounds the interest as these kids say.
QUICK: I mean, you sound like you’re doing some serious soul searching about this and just in life in general at this point.
MURRAY: Well, life in general. And this is kind of a fortunate misfortune where I get to go like okay, how does this really – how does all of this – how is it – I mean, I can’t help but look over there and see there’s like hundreds of people saying what’s that knucklehead saying up there. The knucklehead is trying to figure out what to say. I think that this misfortunate fortune is the kind of thing that I really want. The real person wants. And that I have to treasure. I have to really value. And that to go hide out or you know, armor myself up somehow is not the right choice.
