Bill Murray Claims ‘Ghostbusters II’ Was A Very Different Movie Than What He Was Pitched: ‘Someone Outfoxed Me’

Bill Murray has opened up about his experience making Ghostbusters II, and the actor got candid about how he was “outfoxed” into starring in the lackluster sequel that he claims was not the movie he was originally pitched. While sitting down for an interview with the Santa Barbara Film Festival, Murray discussed being “very, very reluctant” to make a follow-up to the original film, but it was hard to resist after the studio got the entire cast back together to pitch them the new movie. Via People:

“Someone outfoxed me anyway. I don’t know if Ivan [Reitman, director] set it up, but they got us all back together in a room, and really, we hadn’t been together in a room since the movie came out and it was just really, really fun to be together,” Murray said. “We were really funny together.”

After finding himself surprisingly excited to make the sequel, the situation went south when Murray started production on Ghostbusters II, and learned it was clearly not the movie he was pitched. “I showed up on set and went, ‘What the hell is this What is this thing’ But we were already shooting it, so we had to figure out how to make it work,” Murray said.

While the Ghostbusters II fiasco was probably not the main reason, just one of many, Murray is notorious for keeping Hollywood at an arm’s length. The actor doesn’t even have an agent, and he confirmed to IndieWire back in 2019 that he can only be reached by a secret 1-800 number that directs people to an automated voice-mail system that he checks whenever he’s in the mood.

“This was a way you could not answer any phone, and whenever you felt like engaging, you could check to see who had bothered to call and what the message was. It just freed up my life a whole lot,” Murray explained. “Sometimes I go days or weeks. Sorry, I’m busy living.”