Everyone is eager to collaborate with this legendary director, but it seems Bill Murray was an exception — and he still regrets it to this day.
During The Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM, Bill Murray reflected on a missed opportunity with Clint Eastwood. He recalled being a big fan of Eastwood’s films at the time, especially Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and others from that era. He liked the idea of playing a sidekick — the kind of role that often had a dramatic, memorable exit with a great death scene. The thought stayed with him so much that he decided to call Eastwood out of the blue.
When they spoke, Eastwood had an interesting offer.
"Would you ever want to do another service comedy?" he asked, noting that Murray had just made Stripes.
He then pitched a big Navy-themed project. But Murray wasn’t sure about doing another military comedy so soon.
"Jeez" he thought, "would I become like Abbott & Costello? Do I have to keep doing military movies?"
In the end, he said no, but looking back, he regrets it.
"It's one of the few regrets I have," he admitted. "Because it was a big-scale thing, and I would have gotten a great — actually, I don’t know if I’d have gotten a great death scene. It was more of a comedy."
