Lucy Liu Speaks out on Her Feud With Bill Murray on ‘Charlie’s Angels’ Set

Lucy Liu recently opened up about working on the first Charlie’s Angels movie back in 2000 and shared details about her infamous on-set feud with Bill Murray. Liu, now 52, sat down for an interview on the Asian Enough podcast and, over the course of the conversation, she revealed exactly what happened between herself and now-70-year-old Murray. According to the actress, it all started when Murray was late to set for rehearsals one day, due to a personal situation, and when he did arrive he started to “hurl insults” that “kept going on and on.”

Liu recalled, “I was, like, ‘Wow, he seems like he’s looking straight at me.’ I couldn’t believe that it could be towards me, because what do I have to do with anything majorly important at that time?” Liu eventually asked Murray if he was speaking directly to her, because the conversation “started to become a one-on-one communication.” She shared, “It was unjust and it was uncalled for. Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it.

The actress went on to admit that she “stood up” for herself in that moment, and that she does not “regret it” at all. “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. And I would not stand down, and nor should I have and nor did I.”

Liu stated that, over the past two decades, she has spoken with crew members from the movie who have told her that they’re “grateful” to her for speaking up that day. She also shared that she harbors no resentment toward Murray, and even had a past positive interaction with him during a Saturday Night Live reunion. “He came up to me and was perfectly nice,” she remembered, then adding, “But I’m not going to sit there and be attacked.”

The Why Women Kill star explained that she refuses “to be that person that is not going to speak up for myself and stand by the only thing that I have, which is my dignity and self-respect at the end of the day.” She added, “Because in the end, we all end up in the same place as time goes on. Nobody is immortal. But in that time, no matter what happens between now and whatever career choices I make or whatever life decisions I make, I will walk away with my dignity.”