The comedian says he mixed up 'Fargo' scribe Joel Coen with 'Cheaper by the Dozen' writer Joel Cohen when he agreed to voice the fat lazy cat in the first feature film.
- Jan 20, 2014
AceShowbiz - Bill Murray admits he did "Garfield" by mistake. In a Q&A session on Reddit, the former "Saturday Night Live" member claims he agreed to voice the famous fat lazy cat because he thought he would star in a Coen Brothers movie.
The comedian wrongly assumed the film was scripted by writer Joel Coen, who penned hits like "The Big Lebowski" and "Fargo". He was so confident that he didn't even read the script thoroughly when he signed on for the project.
"I wasn't thinking clearly, but it was spelled Cohen, not Coen. I love the Coen brothers' movies. I think that Joel Coen is a wonderful comedic mind," the funnyman explained. "So I didn't really bother to finish the script, I thought, 'He's great, I'll do it.' "
The real writer, Joel Cohen, was known for projects like "Cheaper by the Dozen". Murray says he didn't find out the mixup until the day he hit studio for a recording session. "There was just this long, two-minute silence," he recalls. "I probably cursed a little, and I said, 'I can fix this, but I can't fix this today. Or this week. Who wrote this stuff?' "
Murray first voiced Garfield in 2004's "Garfield", and reprised his role two years later in "Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties". When asked if there would be a third film, he says no, adding, "They sort of shot themselves in the foot, the kidneys, the liver and the pancreas on the second one."
During the chat, the comedian also manages to weigh in on the "SNL" line-up. He says the cast ensemble which had Kristen Wiig was his "favorite group." He explains, "Some really talented people that were all comedians of some kind or another. You think about Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, all these wonderful funny guys. But the last group with Kristen Wiig and those characters, they were a bunch of actors and their stuff was just different."
