In this selection,Bill Murraylooks back on the frenzy that followedGhostbustersand how he grappled with that newfound fame.
Read on below.Wild and Crazy Guyspublishes May 28 and isavailable for pre-order.
Bill Murray had a routine.
Credit: Everett Collection
Arriving at Sorbonne University, he climbed a steep spiral staircase.
Then he treated himself to a silent movie at the Cinematheque.
Often it was something by Buster Keaton.
Crown Archetype
With the smash success ofGhostbusters, he had rocketed right to the top of the A-list.
By the standards of Hollywood, or anywhere else for that matter, it was an insane decision.
But to him it made perfect sense.
For one thing, the public’s response toGhostbustershad been everything he’d feared when hesitating overMeatballsin 1978.
Peter Venkman inspired Peter Venkmania, and everywhere Murray went, people wanted a piece of him.
“Things got really weird this summer.”
There were perks to fame, like the time he met his idol.
“I was gobsmacked.
It was everything I could do to not get up and walk over to his table.
But I didn’t.
I just held it together.
And as he left the restaurant, he gave me a look that said, ‘That was cool.
I know what you were doing.
I know what you felt.
And you sat there and didn’t do it.
And that was cool.'”
But others did not afford him the same courtesy.
They got in a car and just started driving, ending up in Wisconsin, where Murray had relatives.
Word quickly got out that two Ghostbusters were in town.
He felt deeply disillusioned, saying, “I get the same number of lousy ideas.
They don’t make movies.
They make deals.”
Or maybe his appetite for work had just gone completely.
“I know I’ll probably jump off the ledge if it doesn’t open big.”
The critics were as apathetic as everyone else.
“India looks fine.
Paris looks fine.The Razor’s Edgelooks awful and Bill Murray looks stoned,” wrote William E. Sarmento.
“This performance is one-dimensional from start to finish.”
He went on to call the film “Somerset Mauled.”
But he felt anything but.
After some deliberation with his wife, Mickey, he took action.
First he turned down an offer fromTimemagazine to appear on their next cover.
In fact, it was far from a hermitlike existence.
“He was on first-name terms with everybody and they protected him.
But it was legitimate.
He was doing what he needed to do to survive.”
Murray would remain there for six months.
But he wouldn’t appear in a substantial role on the big screen again until 1988.
“I’m famous enough,” he said.
“Being more famous isn’t going to do anything but cause me more problems.”
At the peak of his success, Bill Murray was pulling the ripcord.
To be published on May 28, 2019 by Crown Archetype, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
