Byline: Zajacz, Hollywood beat, San Diego, California.
A non-spokesperson for Netflix said that they shut down production in which actor Bill Murray was featured for a remark he made to another actor. The non-spokesperson neither speaks for Netflix, Hollywood, or Bill Murray.
Bill Murray noted for his acting in Caddy Shack, Ghost Busters, The Life Aquatic, and Lost in Translation to name a few remarked to a fellow actor that they can’t act and are incapable of acting. He made his remark in the tone of the persona of his character; sarcastic.
The fellow actor, noted for their roles in action-adventure movies where acting isn’t required and in an hour long television series where the treatment for their character was described as singular and constipated, did not respond by, “out acting,” Bill Murray in the present production.
The non-spokesperson who had not witnessed the exchange said that the actor to whom the remarks had been directed threw an epic tantrum worthy of recognition. The actor claimed that destroying my perceptions and substituting reality was a vicious and unwarranted attack.
In my day when a colleague said you couldn’t act you simply out acted them. It was a common remark. Criticisms took on many forms and they were a learning experience that made you, not just a better actor but, a better person. It seems such thoughts are unacceptable today.
Rumor has it that Netflix, who has been sued by a fired production worker for their gender identity insensitivity, responded that the ability to act is not a criterion for working on their productions. For a person who doesn’t do the hiring to establish such criterion represents a hostile work environment. Act, don’t act, play a race that you are not or a gender that you are not, be all or nothing; we are a company that believes in an inclusive work place.
When asked if his thoughts that criticism makes a person stronger was part of that inclusive philosophy the response was, “We would certainly exclude such thoughts from our inclusive work environment.”