Seth Green has alleged that Bill Murray once dropped him in a bin “by his ankles” when he was a child, making him the latest in a spate of celebrities coming forward with claims about Murray’s behaviour after it emerged he had paid a reported US$100,000 to settle a complaint about his conduct on an upcoming film.
Speaking on the YouTube show Good Mythical Morning, Green said the alleged incident occurred backstage at Saturday Night Live when he was nine years old. Green appeared in a sketch, while Murray was hosting the episode.
“[Murray] saw me sitting on the arm of this chair and made a big fuss about me being in his seat,” Green said. “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’s mother suggested to her son that he move for Murray, but he refused. “He picked me up by my ankles,” Green said. “Held me upside down … He dangled me over a trash can and he was like, ‘The trash goes in the trash can.’ And I was screaming, and I swung my arms, flailed wildly, full contact with his balls. 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.”
Murray has yet to address Green’s allegations.
Green is the latest celebrity to speak out about Murray’s alleged past behaviour, after it emerged that the 72-year-old actor had paid a reported US$100,000 to settle an official complaint filed by a female crew member who alleged Murray had straddled her and kissed her through a mask on set of the film Being Mortal.
Murray said he was being “jestful”, while the “much younger” woman said she interpreted his actions as “entirely sexual” and was “horrified”.
In April, Searchlight Pictures paused production citing the complaint without naming Murray while he and the woman entered mediation.
Murray admitted in April that it was his behaviour that halted production. In an interview with CNBC, he described the incident as a “difference of opinion”.
“I did something I thought was funny and it wasn’t taken that way,” he said. “The movie studio wanted to do the right thing so they wanted to check it all out, investigate it and so they stopped the production.”
Last week, Murray’s former co-star Geena Davis alleged in her new memoir that Murray had “insisted” on using a massage machine on her back while on set of the 1990 film Quick Change.
“I said no multiple times, but he wouldn’t relent,” Davis wrote. “I would have had to yell at him and cause a scene if I was to get him to give up trying to force me to do it; the other men in the room did nothing to make it stop. I realised with profound sadness that I didn’t yet have the ability to withstand this onslaught – or to simply walk out.”
Davis also claimed Murray verbally berated her in front of crew while adjusting her wardrobe on set. “There were easily more than 300 people there – and Murray was still screaming at me, for all to see and hear,” she wrote.
On Sunday, comedian Rob Schneider claimed Murray had “absolutely hated” the cast of Saturday Night Live when he hosted the show in 1993.
“He wasn’t very nice to us,” Schneider told the Jim Norton & Sam Roberts Show. “He hated us on Saturday Night Live when he hosted. Absolutely hated us. I mean, seething.”
On Sunday, actor Keke Palmer, who also appears in Being Mortal, said she wasn’t sure if the film will ever be completed and that “[Ansari] would probably have to do a major rewrite, but I know what we got was gold.”
“If somebody could figure it out, it would be Aziz,” she told Variety. “Obviously, we got cut short at a certain point but I will say that I am pretty devastated. It’s an amazing film. If there is some way to be able to complete, salvage it, I would want to do it.”
