Bill Murray Recalls Bruce Willis’ ‘Insane’ Job as ‘SNL’ Assistant
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live! on Monday, Bill Murray recalled Bruce Willis’ humble beginnings as an assistant at Saturday Night Live before he got his big break in the mid-’80s.
“Bruce Willis was a page at NBC when I was on Saturday Night Live. This sounds like insane s--t, [but] his job was to come and go to the dressing rooms and refill the M&Ms and pretzels in the actors’ rooms,” Murray, 77, told host Andy Cohen.
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Willis, 70, moved on to greener pastures after he was cast in the lead role of the hit TV show Moonlighting (1986). Shortly thereafter, he achieved international stardom with his role in Die Hard (1988). But according to Murray, Willis remembered his time at SNL long after he became one of the biggest movie stars in the world.
“I remember when I met him after he was already a successful guy, he said, ‘You and Gilda [Radner] were nice to me,’” Murray said.
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Willis would return to the SNL stage twice as host, first in 1989 and again in 2013. He and Murray ended up sharing screentime later in their respective careers, starring together in Wes Anderson’s coming-of-age dramedy Moonrise Kingdom (2012).
“Moonrise Kingdom was a really beautiful, lovely film. And I got to work with and have a wonderful time with [him],” Murray recalled as he turned visibly emotional. “Bruce Willis is a good guy, a good f--king guy. He was a good friend.”
You can check out a clip from Murray’s Watch What Happens Live! appearance below.
Bill Murray gives us the inside scoop on the start of Bruce Willis' career #WWHL pic.twitter.com/KJRFQjXsar
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