Following allegations of inappropriate behavior against actor Bill Murray on the set of “Being Mortal,” Searchlight Pictures has halted production on the Aziz Ansari led film, reports say.
According to reports from multiple outlets, including the New York Times and Variety, the film studio issued a letter to cast crew on Wednesday saying the suspension occurred because of a complaint, but did not go into further details.
“Late last week, we were made aware of a complaint, and we immediately looked into it,” read the letter, per The New York Times and Variety. “We are truly grateful to all of you for everything you’ve put into this project.”
The outlets report the complaint involves inappropriate behavior against the comedian.
A representative for Searchlight Pictures confirmed to USA TODAY that production on the film has been halted at this time, but no further information was provided. USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Murray and Ansari for comment and further details.
“Being Mortal” also stars Seth Rogen, Keke Palmer and Ansari, who is also the film’s writer and director, according to IMDb. The movie is based on “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,” a 2014 non-fiction book about end-of-life care written by surgeon Atul Gawande.
In a July 2021 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Lucy Liu opened up about working with Murray on the 2001 film “Charlie’s Angels,” alleging the comedian started to “hurl insults” at her while filming a scene.
“Some of the language was inexcusable and unacceptable, and I was not going to just sit there and take it,” she said. “So, yes, I stood up for myself, and I don’t regret it. Because no matter how low on the totem pole you may be or wherever you came from, there’s no need to condescend or to put other people down. And I would not stand down, and nor should I have.”
Ansari took a break from Hollywood after he was accused of sexual misconduct by a former date in a Babe.net story from January 2018. In the Babe story, the accuser, who was identified by a pseudonym, said the two were at his apartment on a date when he undressed her and pressured her into oral sex.
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“I know I was physically giving off cues that I wasn’t interested. I don’t think that was noticed at all, or if it was, it was ignored,” she wrote.
At the time, Ansari, who was vocal about his support of said he supports the #MeToo movement, said in a statement he thought the sexual activity was consensual, but “(t)he next day, I got a text from her saying that although ‘it may have seemed okay,’ upon further reflection, she felt uncomfortable.’ It was true that everything did seem okay to me, so when I heard that it was not the case for her, I was surprised and concerned. … I took her words to heart.”
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