One of the many legends surrounding Bill Murray is that he’s incredibly difficult to get a hold of, leaving many fans wondering how he was cajoled into becoming the latest big name to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in this week’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
The veteran comic legend doesn’t have an agent or a cellphone, and screens his calls by putting virtually everyone with the exception of Wes Anderson through to an answering machine that he doesn’t even check all that often, so you’d imagine Kevin Feige and the rest of the higher-ups had a strategy in place to track him down and put out an offer.
As it turns out, though, fellow new recruit and keen golfer Kathryn Newton played a pivotal role in getting Murray on board, after she revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that a conversation on the fairways led directly to the star’s Ant-Man 3 gig.
The truth is I played in the tournament [2021 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am], and I wanted everyone to think I was cool, so I told them about the next project I was doing. I was also playing with Jordan Spieth, who I’m a big fan of, and I was like, “I’m in Ant-Man, and it’s going to be sick.” And Bill was like, “Huh, Marvel.”
And then I got a phone call a month later. My mom was like, “I have Bill Murray for you.” And I was like, “What!?” And Bill was like, “I’ve been thinking about joining the MCU for a while.” And I was like, “Okay.” And he was like, “I just wanted to ask your permission to join the movie.” And I was like, “Yeah, Bill. That’s fine, but maybe you should talk to somebody else and see if there’s a role for you. I have no idea.” But I think he already had an offer and just wanted to make a joke out of it.”
You never really know where the truth lies with Murray, so maybe he really did ask for Newton’s permission before accepting what’s sure to be a lucrative guest spot in the world’s biggest franchise. Then again, there’s a reason why “the Bill Murray story” has long since entered the realm of internet folklore, so it’s always a 50/50 shot that he’s kidding.