What happened on the set of ‘GROUNDHOG DAY’ caused longtime friends Harold Ramis and Bill Murray to fall out

We have long heard rumors about the difficult nature Bill Murray he has sometimes had on the sets of his films. One film that is often referred to as a film he was particularly hateful about is And Bob?, but that actually makes sense since Bob’s character was really insufferable in the movie. If he was acting methodically, he was doing a good job. But unfortunately, that wasn’t his only gripe on set, and one of them cost him a friendship.

Murray and his ghost Buster co-star Harold Ramis came up with each other, first starting with Chicago’s famed Second City improv comedy troupe in 1970. The pair worked a National Lampoon Radio Time And The National Lampoon Showbefore Murray became a cast member of SNL and Ramis became head writer of the Second City television show SCTV extension.

The actors reunited for a string of 80s comedies including Meatballs, CaddyshackAnd Stripesbefore doing the first and second ghost Buster movies, launching them into another level of fame.

The pair continued to sign on for comedy groundhog day, with Ramis directing from a screenplay he co-wrote, and Murray starring in the film. But that was what drove a wedge between them that lasted for decades.

Danny Rubino he co-wrote the film’s screenplay with Ramis, and said the original script wasn’t as straightforward as the story we ended up seeing and went at a slower pace. He said Murray asked to collaborate with him on the rewrite, and he and producer Trevor Albert explained in the book Wild and crazy kids Of Nick De Semlyen that Murray’s changes messed up the story so much, they weren’t sure where to go from there, and Murray wouldn’t even return calls from Ramis about the ordeal. Once that was sorted out, production was a whole other story.

Bill Murray arrived at the scene in Woodstock, Illinois, who was doubling for Punxsutawney, Pa., and Ramis was finally able to meet his friend, but it was far from a friendly exchange. While Ramis hoped groundhog day to be funny, warm, and romantic, Murray felt it needed to be a bit cold with a focus on existential crisis. Their different viewpoints would create an adversarial relationship throughout the entire shoot.

During filming, the arguments between Ramis and Murray got so bad that Ramis told Murray to find an assistant who could relay messages between them. Murray then hired a young deaf woman, who clearly didn’t fix the problem. Ramis told Entertainment Weekly:

“He hired a personal assistant who was profoundly deaf, didn’t speak verbally, only spoke American Sign Language, which Bill didn’t speak, nor anyone else in the production. But Bill said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m going to learn sign language» And I think it was so uncomfortable that in a couple of weeks I gave up.”

Rubin was only there for the first week of shooting, so he didn’t see all the tension and disagreements, but he recalled: ‘It wasn’t really between Harold and Bill, it was Bill. whole thing as much as me.”

Some have attributed Murray’s personal struggles, his divorce from his first wife, as part of his woes. Some say he resented his professional accolades related to Ramis. But whatever the matter, the two didn’t speak to each other for 21 years.

In 2010, Ramis was diagnosed with autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis. This gave him trouble walking and talking for the remaining years of his life until his death in February 2014. Murray ended up paying an unexpected visit to Ramis’ home on Chicago’s North Shore shortly before his death. Accompanied by a police escort and a box of donuts, Murray arrived early in the morning and the two spent a couple of hours making amends and laughing again like old friends.

Following Ramis’ death in 2014, Murray made one final gesture of reconciliation for his friend. While presenting the Best Cinematography award at the 2014 Academy Awards, after reading all the nominees, Murray added: “Oh, we forgot one: Harold Ramis for Caddyshack, ghost BusterAnd groundhog day.”

It’s a shame these friends lost all those years they could have remained collaborators and friends, but it’s great that they were able to reconcile before it was too late.

source: /film