A Q&A with Bill Murray

The actor talks about his most demanding and challenging role in years, in his latest film St Vincent.

Bill Murray, left, and Jaden Lieberher in a scene from St. Vincent. AP Photo / The Weinstein Company

When he sat through the premiere of his latest film, St Vincent, at the Toronto International Film Festival, Bill Murray found it to be an unexpectedly moving experience.

“I thought: ‘Well, I better not be crying when the lights come up,’ ” says the actor. “That would be bad for my image.”

For an actor who has worked irregularly and has been drawn to smaller roles of late, St Vincent, which will screen at the Dubai International Film Festival next month, is his most challenging role in years. It's a technically demanding part that required a coarse Brooklyn accent and portraying the aftermath of a stroke.

His character, Vincent, gruffly but tenderly mentors a shy boy next door (played by Jaeden Lieberher), teaching him how to box, not to mention how to gamble.

We caught up with the actor to chat about his new-found ambition, his Oscar hopes and how he remains so relaxed.

This might be your biggest part since Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers in 2005.

It is ambitious and it is larger. I’ve just been taking the jobs I like. I haven’t had any kind of a plan, really. It really was a big, leading part. I thought to myself: “God, I haven’t had to be the leading part in a while.”

Playing a stroke victim rehabbing with slurred speech would scare me if I was an actor.

Scared me, too. I hate that not-having-your-faculties acting. That’s like acting school. I don’t want to go to acting school, ever. That was like doing ordinals or cleaning paint with a small razor blade. It’s the worst kind of work. Deep cleaning. And, yet, I didn’t have a stroke. Life could be worse. I’m not complaining. I could be the guy with the stroke.

This film could have easily slid into sentimentality, something you’ve made a career out of avoiding.

Sentimentality to me is a symbol that we’ve left the planet. OK, bye-bye. Let me know when you come back because you’re no longer here. You just left. It reminds me of being at a funeral, like my dad dies and the grief is just overpowering. And all anyone can say to you is: “Well, he’s probably up there in heaven, bowling with Uncle George.” It’s like: “Yeah, that’s probably it. He’s up there bowling with Uncle George.” He’s dead. He’s gone. What am I going to do? Talk to me. Don’t make up your own dreamscape. Stay here with me, will you? Don’t go away.

Harvey Weinstein will surely push you for an Academy Award nomination for this.

That running after prizes stuff, I was involved in that once before. It’s like a low-grade virus. It’s an infection when you really campaign for it. But it’s fun to win the prize because you get the chance to get up on stage and be funny.

You seem to still enjoy that, like during the Q&A following a festival screening of Ghostbusters.

Like shooting fish in a barrel. You can do things with a few hundred people. You can really mess around. You can shock a lot of people at once. You have an incredible liberty to avoid everything that’s expected of a man at a microphone.

You spoke then about the importance of staying relaxed. Are you doing a good job of that?

Only when I remember. I’ve actually started saying: “I’m not a worrier.” People say: “Don’t worry about ...” And I say: “I’m not a worrier.” I’ve found it to be extremely helpful. Don’t throw me a coiled up rope. Give it to me straight.