Abstract
In 2005, while promoting the release of Broken Flowers in the UK, Bill Murray told the Times:
So, a while ago, I thought, I don’t really want to be a big movie star. I started taking these jobs where you don’t necessarily get paid a lot of money, but you work with people who are good and you do what you want to do. And I figured, well, maybe one of these is going to hit one day, and I’ll get whatever I need in terms of being noticed. (Anon. 2005)
By 2005, this was a familiar story; one that Murray began telling in support of his role in Rushmore (1998). On the Charlie Rose Show in January 1999 he said, ‘This was a movie where I didn’t really get paid, I just did it because I thought these guys were good and the chance that it might work […] I’ve taken these art movies, I call them, this last year or two, and they’ve been fun.’ To the New York Times he insisted, ‘I realized, after movies like Ghostbusters, that I shouldn’t give up even if the movie didn’t have a ride at Disney World. I realized I don’t need a blockbuster audience’ (Hirschberg 1999).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anon. (2005) ‘Bill Murray’, The Times [online], 13 February. Available at: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article513315.ece (accessed 10 August 2011).
Anon. (2007) ‘Bill Murray in “buggy drink test”’, BBC News [online], 23 August. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6959803.stm (accessed 10 August 2011).
Anderson, Wes (1999) ‘Bill Murray’, Interview (February 1999).
Associated Press (2006) ‘Bill Murray Does Dishes at Students’ Party in Scotland’, Fox News [online], 15 October. Available at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,220958,00.html (accessed 10 August 2011).
Crouse, Timothy (1984) ‘The Rolling Stone Interview: Bill Murray’, Rolling Stone, 16 August: 21–4, 43–8.
Fierman, Dan (2010) ‘Bill Murray Is Ready To See You Now’, GQ [online], August. Available at: http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201008/bill-murray-dan-fierman-gq-interview (accessed 10 August 2011).
Hills, Matt (2002) Fan Cultures. London: Routledge.
Hirschberg, Lynn (1999) ‘Bill Murray: In all Seriousness’, New York Times [online], 31 January. Available at: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E0DF1338F932A05752C0A96F958260 (accessed 10 August 2011).
Hollows, Joanne (2003) ‘The Masculinity of Cult’, in Mark Jancovich, Antonio Lazaro Reboll, Julian Stringer and Andrew Willis (eds), Defining Cult Movies: The Cultural Politics of Oppositional Taste. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 35–53.
Jancovich, Mark (2002) ‘Cult Fictions: Cult Movies, Subcultural Capital and the Production of Cultural Distinctions’, Cultural Studies, Vol. 16, No. 2: 306–22.
King, Geoff (2010) Lost in Translation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Mathijs, Ernest and Xavier Mendik (2007) ‘Editorial Introduction: What is Cult Film?’ in Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik (eds), The Cult Film Reader. London: Open University Press, 1–12.
McDonald, Paul (2000) The Star System: Hollywood’s Production of Popular Identities. London: Wallflower Press.
Neumairer, Joe (2004) ‘They [Heart] Bill Murray’, Daily News, Sunday Now Magazine, 5 December: 2–3.
Pearce, Garth (2005) ‘Old Stone Face Cracks’, The Guardian [online], 22 October. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/oct/22/features.weekend (accessed 10 August 2011).
Quigley, Eileen S. (ed.) (2008) International Motion Picture Almanac 2008. Groton: Quigley Publishing.
Smith, Jacob (2005) ‘Showing Off: Laughter and Excessive Disclosure in Burt Reynolds’ Star Image’, Film Criticism, Vol. 30, No. 3: 21–40.
Thornton, Sarah (1995) Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Oxford: Blackwell.
Tzioumakis, Yannis (2011) ‘Academic Discourses and American Independent Cinema: In Search of a Field of Studies. Part 2: From the 1990s to Date’, New Review of Film and Television Studies, Vol. 9, No. 3: 311–40.
Whalley, Jim (2010) Saturday Night Live, Hollywood Comedy, and American Culture: From Chevy Chase to Tina Fey. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Winters, Laura (1999) ‘An Original at Ease in the Studio System’, New York Times [online], 31 January. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/31/movies/film-an-original-at-ease-in-the-studio-system.html (accessed 10 August 2011).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Jim Whalley
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Whalley, J. (2013). ‘You’re Bill Groundhog-Day-Ghostbusting-Ass Murray’: ‘Mainstream’ Success, Star Agency and Cult Reinvention. In: Egan, K., Thomas, S. (eds) Cult Film Stardom. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137291776_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137291776_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33305-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-29177-6
eBook Packages: Palgrave Media & Culture CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)