Bill Murray is reported to have paid a woman $100,000 (£90,000) after allegedly kissing and straddling her on set, leading to the film Being Mortal being cancelled.
The actor, 72, is said to have interacted with the unidentified woman on the set of Being Mortal earlier this year, which was set to be Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut.
The woman claimed she had been unable to move due to Murray’s weight on her as he allegedly kissed her body.
Disney shut down production on the $20million (£18million) film indefinitely, with Puck reporting that Murray had allegedly been overly friendly and ‘sexual’ with the female production staffer.
Murray claimed to believe the woman had been flirting with him, with the pair being near a bed at one point, when the actor allegedly began kissing her body and straddling her.
He is alleged to have moved to kiss the woman on the mouth while both he and her were wearing face masks, which is alleged to have happened in front of witnesses.
According to Puck’s reports, Murray is claimed to have immediately said his actions were meant to be playful, but the woman is said to have been ‘horrified’ and saw it as sexual, leading her to immediately complain, which was reportedly backed by a second staffer who claims to have seen the alleged incident.
Production was suspended on the film, though Searchlight did not detail the reasons for this on any company memo distributed to the crew.
Murray is alleged to have reached a settlement with the woman and reportedly paid her just over $100,000 in exchange for confidentiality as part of a non-disclosure agreement, also waiving her rights to make a legal complaint against the producers, according to reports.
Speaking on CNBC in April, Murray kept tight-lipped when asked what had happened, saying at the time: ‘I did something I thought was funny, and it wasn’t taken that way. As of now we are talking and we are trying to make peace with each other.
‘We are both professionals, we like each others’ work, we like each other I think and 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. It’s been quite an education for me.
‘The world’s different than it was when I was a little kid. Things change, times change.’
It comes after Geena Davis calmed last week that Murray had shouted at her on the set of 1990 crime comedy Quick Change, in her memoir Dying Of Politeness.
She told The Times that Murray screamed at her in front of ‘hundreds’ of people on set because she was allegedly late, which she says was down to her time in the wardrobe department overrunning.
Davis added that she wished she had spoken out after her audition with him, explaining: ‘That was bad.
’The way he behaved at the first meeting… I should have walked out of that or profoundly defended myself, in which case I wouldn’t have got the part.
‘I could have avoided that treatment if I’d known how to react or what to do during the audition. But, you know, I was so non-confrontational that I just didn’t…’
Metro.co.uk has contacted lawyers for Bill Murray for comment.
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