Drew Barrymore weighs in on Bill Murray and Lucy Liu’s clash on Charlie’s Angels set
‘What you have to know is how much Lucy stood up for herself and that was the great thing that came out of an unfortunate circumstance,’ actor said
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Your support makes all the difference.Drew Barrymore has shown support for Lucy Liu, who allegedly had a confrontation with actor Bill Murray on the set of their 2000 movie Charlie’s Angels.
Liu spoke about the incident during an appearance on Los Angeles Times’s Asian Enough podcast in July 2021, where she claimed Murray had “hurled insults” at her that “kept going on and on”.
“It was unjust and it was uncalled for,” she said. “Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it. So, yes, I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it.”
Barrymore weighed in on the matter during Tuesday’s (5 October) episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, where the actor sat down with Danny Pellegrino and Ross Mathews to discuss the classic movie.
Barrymore mentioned her close friendship with Liu, and revealed that she made a video after her co-star spoke out about her clash with Murray to “back her up”. However, Liu told Barrymore she didn’t need it.
“Lucy is out there right now talking about her instance with Bill Murray and I did this whole video and sent it to her to back her up,” said Barrymore, to which Liu responded: “‘I don’t need it.’”
The talk show host then went on to provide details of what had allegedly unfolded in the past.
“What really happened was Bill was just in a – you know, comedians can be a little dark sometimes, and he just came in in a bad mood,” she said.
“And what you have to know is how much Lucy stood up for herself and that was the great thing that came out of an unfortunate circumstance. She literally said, ‘I do not accept that kind of behavior from you.’ And we all supported her and backed her up and we moved forward.”
Reports have previously claimed that Murray “loudly complained” about Liu’s “acting technique” on set and that he even stopped a scene in progress and pointed to Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Liu, saying in order, ‘I get why you’re here, and you’ve got talent… but what in the hell are you doing here. You can’t act!’”
“In the workplace, it is so important that we respect each other, and if you don’t feel you’re being respected to speak up for yourself and to have people around you say, ‘I back this person,’” Barrymore continued.
“But I respected her then, I respect her now. I’m proud of us as a team and a company that we didn’t tiptoe on the eggshells. We dealt with it right then and there, we were strong, and we moved forward and we didn’t accept anything less moving forward.”
In her new interview, Liu said that despite the row, she has “nothing against” Murray, and they have since seen each other at a Saturday Night Live reunion.
“He came up to me and was perfectly nice. But I’m not going to sit there and be attacked,” she said.
The Independent has contacted Murray’s representatives for comments.
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