Andie MacDowell Reveals Bill Murray’s On-Set Shenanigans

Life imitated art for Andie Macdowell on the set of groundhog day released 30 years ago on February 12, 1993.

Just as her Pittsburgh news producer Rita Hanson ends up falling under the spell of cynical meteorologist Phil Connors while stuck reliving the same Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, MacDowell was also charmed by her incomparable co-star, Bill Murray.

“I’ll tell you the funny thing about Bill, you don’t know what to expect from him. It is unique nobody,” MacDowell told Yahoo Entertainment during a 2019 Role reminder interview (see above, with groundhog day from 3:30 p.m.). “He is extremely Creative. Costs. Every time he does a scene, it’s fresh, it’s new, and he adds nuances to it. Off camera, he’s just as weird, maybe weirder. Because he’s just him.

Murray’s whimsical stories abound from here to the farthest corners of the internet, and MacDowell has a few to share from their time working together.

“People came from all over to see it,” she recalls. “And on Friday night he was like, ‘I’m sorry, folks. I don’t do autographs on Fridays. And it didn’t matter where they came from. But the funny thing is how he would say it, and people accepted it. They weren’t mad at him. No one was angry or said bad things to him.

There was another time when Murray and MacDowell were shooting a car scene together when Murray stepped on the gas and dumped them offset.

“He just took off,” she said. “And I was like, ‘What are you doing? Where are we going, Bill? And he’s like, ‘Oh, I just thought we were going for a ride.’ So we just left [for] about 10, 15 minutes.

groundhog day is currently airing on AMC+.

This story was originally published on February 2, 2022.