Aziz Ansari reflects on his unfinished Bill Murray film, Being Mortal
This past year saw Aziz Ansari make his directorial debut with the comedy Good Fortune, starring himself, Seth Rogen and Keanu Reeves as a guardian angel. Originally, Ansari was set to make his debut with a film adaptation of the book Being Mortal. Before Good Fortune, his cast of himself, Rogen and Keke Palmer had been filming on Being Mortal with comedy icon Bill Murray. Unfortunately, Murray was hit with sexual misconduct allegations during filming and, as a result the studio behind it, Searchlight Pictures, pulled the plug with over 50% of the film already shot. Ansari was allowed to shop the film (and the footage) to other buyers, but in the end, there seemed to be no takers for what’s likely seen as a tainted project.
Ansari talks about the film on the Theo Von Podcast
Ansari’s film Good Fortune is now available on digital and the comedian recently appeared on This Past Weekend with Theo Von. Von asked Ansari if there are any movies that he’d want to make, but doesn’t think he’d get to. Ansari answered that he has a couple of scripts that he’d like to make, but first and foremost, he would want to finish Being Mortal. Ansari stated, “We shot like half of it. […] Yeah, I’d love to finish that at some point. You know, if we can. Cause it was very special.” Von followed up with how heartbreaking it must’ve been for everyone. Ansari responded, “It was, but it was one of those things…it was so crazy, I don’t think I ever fully processed it.”
Putting together Being Mortal
The writer/director gave some background about how he chose that film to be his first directorial project. Ansari reached out to the author of Being Mortal, Atul Gawande, about adapting it into more of a fictional movie. The comedian talked about how the book dealt with “end-of-life issues” and he thought the book had some good dark humor that he wanted to put in his film, citing the tedious process of finding a nursing home for a parent in need of assisted living. He knew he wanted Murray to be the dad and couldn’t envision the movie without him since not only could Murray nail the comedy, but he also had the dramatic chops to pull off the poignant moments.
Ansari talked about how famously hard it is to contact Murray, but he was able to pitch him the film and sent him a script. After Murray read the script, he was interested and requested the book as well. Rogen was also set to play Murray’s son and Ansari had the makings of his first film underway.
Why Being Mortal was abandoned
The film was originally shut down following reports of Murray allegedly kissing and straddling a female member of the film crew. Murray himself had acknowledged the accusations but said the misconduct was meant to be as a joke. Once Searchlight departed the film, which left Being Mortal on indefinite pause, Murray settled the lawsuit out of court for a reported $100,000. This is also when the film was shopped around to other studios by Ansari, to no avail.
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