Bill Murray, during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show on March 25, mentioned that he regrets turning down a Clint Eastwood movie. As he recalled the incident and described the movie, it appears that the movie in question is the 1986 film, Heartbreak Ridge.
When Howard Stern asked if there's a movie that the actor-comedian watched and wanted to "act with his guy so bad?", Murray responded saying,
"A long time ago I was watching the Clint Eastwood movies of the day, like, 'Thunderbolt and Lightfoot' or whatever the movies he was making then, and I thought, 'His sidekick gets killed, and he avenges, but the sidekick gets like a great part, a great death scene."
This particular observation made Murray want to call Eastwood,
"I was like, I've got to call this guy. So I called him out of the blue, and he said, 'Would you ever want to do another service comedy?' Because I just made 'Stripes' and he had this great idea for an enormous Navy thing."
Bill Murray then wondered if he would have to do "military movies" and then decided that maybe he "shouldn't."
It is likely that Bill Murray is referring to the 1986 military drama Heartbreak Ridge starring Clint Eastwood, who plays the role of an old-school Marine gunnery sergeant who trains a group of indisciplined recruits and leads them into combat during the U.S invasion of Grenada.
The movie came out after 1981's Stripes.
"But it's one of the few regrets I have is that I didn't do it" - says Bill Murray
While speaking to Howard Stern about rejecting a Clint Eastwood movie, Bill Murray mentions that he regrets it, since the movie turned out to be "big scale" and he had the chance of getting a "great death scene",
"But it's one of the few regrets I have is that I didn't do it. Because it was a big-scale thing, and I would have gotten a great death scene, it was more of a comedy that one - but it was great."
The actor mentions that he still brings up the incident to this day and apologises for turning the offer down whenever he runs into the legendary director-producer. However, Murray also noted that Eastwood is "well over it", since he is a "very resilient fella."
As for future projects, Bill Murray is all set to join forces with Kristen Wiig for the Max Barbakow-directed comedy Ephiphany.
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