Bill Murray Is A One Man Band When It Comes To Business

Would you believe me if I told you there’s at least one person in Hollywood who doesn’t mix their business life and personal life like some cocktail. Bill Murray is one man in show business that still believes in never letting the tips touch. In addition to keeping two separate phone lines, one for business, one for family, he opted to not take advantage of a publicist, agent, or lawyer to provide him with middleman services. Which is either really noble or really cheap of him. Your only way of reaching Bill is by calling an 800 number and leaving multiple messages. And when Murray calls you back you better be articulate when explaining who you are and why he should care. Murray may have been a mob boss in a past life.

Writer-director Theodore Melfi provided an account of what it was like trying to get in contact with Murray to pitch him the lead role in St. Vincent:

“Oh god, that story’s so crazy,” Melfi told USA Today in 2014. “The nuts and bolts is [Murray] has no agent and manager, as everyone knows. You just call the 1-800 number. And I left, I don’t know, a dozen messages. It’s not his voice on there. It’s a Skytel voicemail with a menu. You have to record the message and send the message. It’s so confusing.”

I wonder how often Bill has to change his 800 number. It seems like a private number that he considers to be so sacred would eventually fall victim to prank calling after an upset director who was turned down posts the number on either Craigslist or a truck stop bathroom with “call me for a good time, love Bill Murray” above it. Nothing can ruin a man’s morning quite like listening to a voice mailbox full of messages from Willie Pfister looking for some discreet fun.

Photo Credit: Star of the Ghostbusters reboot Kate McKinnon from Getty Images