Former Child Star Says Bill Murray Made Him Cry Backstage at "SNL"
Actor Seth Green claims the star actually stuffed him into a trash can.
When Seth Green was asked about the rudest celebrity he'd ever met during a recent talk show appearance, he had a story from early in his career ready to go. The star, who's been in films including Can't Hardly Wait and Austin Powers and created the long-running animated comedy series Robot Chicken, got his start as a child actor. When he was still a kid, he worked with established performers like Tim Curry in the It miniseries and Beau Bridges in The Hotel New Hampshire, but not every adult actor he interacted with left him with fond memories. Green recently explained that he had an encounter with Bill Murray on the set of Saturday Night Live that left him in tears. Read on to see what happened during their run-in.
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Green met Murray backstage at Saturday Night Live.
During his Oct. 13 appearance on the YouTube series Good Mythical Morning, Green was asked to name the rudest celebrity he's ever been around. The now-48-year-old actor launched into a story about appearing on an episode of SNL when he was just starting out. He was part of a segment in which kids were asked about what Christmas meant to them. The episode aired in December 1981, when Green would have been nearly eight years old—a few years before his first movie roles.
Green says Murray got upset with him for a surprising reason.
Green said that he was sitting on the edge of a sofa backstage when Murray asked him to move.
"So, Bill Murray was hosting the show. And Bill Murray, as everybody knows, is great with kids," Green joked. "So, he saw me sitting on the arm of this chair and made a big fuss about me being in his seat. And I was like, 'That is absurd. I am sitting on the arm of this couch. There are several lengths of this sofa. Kindly, eff-off.' And he was like, 'That's my chair.'"
Green said that his mom eventually suggested that he give up the seat, but he refused. "Are you this much of a jerk?" he remembered thinking. "You're this rude to tell a nine-year-old to get out of your… What is this power play?'"
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He claims Murray picked up him by the ankles.
The stand-off ended when Murray did something shocking, Green claimed. "He picked me up by my ankles—I know right?" he continued, noting the reaction from Good Mythical Morning hosts Link Neal and Rhett James McLaughlin. "Gasps from the crowd … He dangled me over a trash can and he was like, 'The trash goes in the trash can.'"
Green went on, "I was screaming. And I swung my arms, failed wildly, full contact with his [expletive]. He dropped me in the trash can, the trash can falls over. I was horrified. I ran away, hid under the table in my dressing room, and just cried. And was like, 'Oh my god, I don't want to do the show. I can't believe this happened. I've never been so embarrassed in my life."
Some SNL stars comforted him.
Green said that Saturday Night Live stars Eddie Murphy and Tim Kazurinsky visited him in the dressing room afterward.
"They come back and come in my room like, 'Hey, everybody knows Bill's a [expletive], you know? He's hosting the show. He's probably really, like, nervous about it,'" he said. They encouraged him to be more professional than the older comedian. "'You be a pro, right?" he remembered them saying. "'The show must go on. You be a pro." Mimicking his younger self crying, Green added, "And I was like, 'I am a pro. I'm a pro.'"
Best Life has reached out to a representative for Murray regarding Green's story but has not yet received a response.
Another star recently spoke out about an encounter with Murray.
Green is not the first person to make a claim about Murray making them feel uncomfortable. In her new memoir, Geena Davis wrote about working with Murray on the 1990 comedy Quick Change. She claimed that Murray, who starred in the film and co-directed, screamed at her on the set. She also claimed that during their first meeting in a hotel room, he insisted on using a massage device he had in his possession on her.
A complaint was also recently filed against the actor on the set of the movie Being Mortal, production of which has since been suspended. "I did something I thought was funny and it wasn't taken that way," Murray explained of the situation to CNBC.
