Drew Barrymore Dishes on Lucy Liu and Bill Murray ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Feud: ‘We All Supported Her’
Drew Barrymore weighed in on what went down between Lucy Liu and Bill Murray on the set of the movie Charlie’s Angels. Barrymore witnessed the exchange between the two actors and supported her co-star when Murray was less than pleasant while filming.
Drew Barrymore explained what happened between Lucy Liu and Bill Murray
During the Sept. 5 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the host chatted about Charlie’s Angels with Danny Pellegrino from the Everything Iconic podcast. Before showing the segment, Barrymore admitted, “He got some stuff out of me that I actually felt really vulnerable about.”
“He caught me off guard several times,” she confessed. “I’m a terrible liar and the worst actor ever — I know that sounds so stupid. But I can’t lie. So he got me in some really uncomfortable positions.”
Their discussion about Charlie’s Angels quickly turned to how Liu publicly addressed the incident with Murray. “I did this whole video and sent it to her to back her up and she was like, ‘Nah, I don’t need it,’” Barrymore explained.
“You want to know what happened?” Barrymore asked. “You want to spill the tea? So 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, 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.”
Barrymore noted, “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.”
The actor clarified that Murray was being negative in “general” but “zeroed in” on Liu. “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.’”
“I respected her then, I respect her now,” Barrymore added. “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.”
Lucy Liu shared how she addressed Murray’s negativity
In a July interview with The Los Angeles Times, Liu shared the details of her on-set feud with Murray and explained how she knew she had to stand up for herself. The incident occurred after a scene was reworked but Murray was not on set until later. When he arrived, he appeared to direct his frustration at Liu.
“Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it,” she explained. “So, yes, I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it. Because no matter how low on the totem pole you may be or wherever you came from, there’s no need to condescend or to put other people down.”
Liu added, “And I would not stand down, and nor should I have.”
As Barrymore said, Liu addressed the situation, her co-stars supported her, and they moved forward with filming. The actor said when she saw Murray at a SNL reunion, “he came up to me and was perfectly nice. But I’m not going to sit there and be attacked.”
Barrymore discussed the possibility of a third ‘Charlie’s Angels’ movie
As for why there was never a third installment of Charlie’s Angels, Barrymore explained how it wasn’t really in the cards. “I think, to be really honest, we all got to be in each other’s lives all the time and we were such good friends that we were so satisfied,” she noted. “We didn’t feel like we needed to make a movie in order to be together anymore, because we were together.”
The actor did offer up an idea for a third Charlie’s Angels movie. “I will always hold out hope,” Barrymore said. “Because it is something that is so personal to me. You know, that was a four or five year endeavor as a producer. It may be like more in the Golden Girls era… like Charlie’s Angels, we’ve all moved to Miami.”
