‘Lost in Translation’ Director Sofia Coppola ‘Spent Months Stalking’ Bill Murray to Get Him in the Film
Bill Murray is a comedy icon, but the actor has also demonstrated surprising range over the years. Early attempts at drama such as 1984’s The Razor’s Edge ultimately led the actor to a resurgence in dramatic turns later in his career. The most obvious turning point, of course, was 2003’s Lost in Translation, which director Sofia Coppola fought hard to get him to say “yes” to.
Bill Murray landed an Oscar nomination for ‘Lost in Translation’
Even within his comedic performances, Murray has often shown a natural talent for bringing complexity and pathos to his characters. So perhaps fans and critics shouldn’t been quite so surprised by how well Murray embodies the role in Lost in Translation. He plays Bob Harris, a fading movie star who befriends Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) while in Japan to film a whiskey commercial.
Coppola’s melancholy comedy-drama earned Murray some of the best reviews of his career. And indeed, the actor was heavily tipped to win the Academy Award that year for his performance. Although Murray won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and an Independent Spirit Award for his role, he lost the Oscar to Sean Penn, who won the award for his emotional performance in Mystic River.
Director Sofia Coppola had to work hard to get the actor onboard
In an interview with Charlie Rose, Coppola addressed why she wrote Lost in Translation with Murray in mind as well as the lengths to which she went to get him to sign on to the film, noting she “spent months stalking him.”
“I had to do it with him,” said Coppola. “I just knew he was the perfect person. There’s just no one like him. He’s just Bill Murray. He’s just this great combination of funny and sensitive and sincere. And I wanted to see him in this romantic part that I’d seen him have moments of in Groundhog Day and Rushmore. And I wanted to do a film centering around him.”
Murray is famously hard to reach. Most notably, the actor was long the holdout to getting a third Ghostbusters film off the ground. So it checks out that Coppola was only able to get in touch with him through Wes Anderson, who directed Murray in Rushmore.
Scarlett Johansson was also the first choice for the movie
Writing a movie with Murray in mind makes a lot of sense, given his decades of prominence on the big screen. But apparently, Coppola also had Johansson in line as her first choice to play Charlotte. The actor – who has since become an A-list star, thanks to films like The Avengers and Lucy – was a former child star just beginning to play adult roles at the time.
As Johansson explained, she and Coppola had met during development of the latter’s directorial debut The Virgin Suicides. Although Johansson didn’t join the project – which stars Kirsten Dunst – Coppola circled back when it was time for Lost in Translation. Johansson went on to a Golden Globe nomination and a BAFTA win for the film, which took her career to the next level.
