Geena Davis Shares Bad Audition For Bill Murray

Geena Davis hasn’t worked with Bill Murray in decades because of the way he treated her on the set of Quick Change.

Looking back on the 1990 film, Geena says she should have walked away in the very beginning, as soon as things started to get uncomfortable.

“I said no multiple times, but he wouldn’t relent,” Geena wrote. “I would have had to yell at him and cause a scene if I was to get him to give up trying to force me to do it; the other men in the room did nothing to make it stop.”

She continued, “I realized with profound sadness that I didn’t yet have the ability to withstand this onslaught — or to simply walk out.”

In the end, she says Bill “placed the thing on my back for a total of about two seconds.”

Reflecting on the incident, Geena says she should have stood up for herself, even if that meant losing the part.

“I should have walked out of that or profoundly defended myself, in which case I wouldn’t have got the part,” Geena told The Times.

She added, “I could have avoided that treatment if I’d known how to react or what to do during the audition. But, you know, I was so non-confrontational that I just didn’t…”

The uncomfortable interactions didn’t stop there though, as Geena also recalled a time when she was verbally berated on set for being late — despite the fact she had been waiting on a wardrobe adjustment.

“There were easily more than 300 people there — and Murray was still screaming at me, for all to see and hear,” she wrote in her memoir.

Since doing press for the film, Geena hasn’t seen or spoken to Bill — and she knows she isn’t alone in her experience.

“I figure it’s sort of rather universally known that he could be difficult to work with,” she told People. “And so I don’t feel like I’m busting him in a way that will necessarily shock him.”

“I think he knows very well the way he can behave,” Geena concluded.