Bill Murray ‘Regrets’ Turning Down Clint Eastwood Film

Bill Murray doesn’t have many regrets about the roles he’s selected, but he is lamenting losing out on a supporting part in a Clint Eastwood film.

Murray said during “The Howard Stern Show” that he turned down an Eastwood feature after starring in 1981’s Army-based “Stripes.” While Murray did not name which Eastwood film he said no to, it seems to be 1986 war drama “Heartbreak Ridge,” in which Eastwood directed and starred in as a U.S. Marine tasked with whipping a platoon into shape. Murray explained that while he would have loved to be a “sidekick” to Eastwood’s lead, he did not want to be typecast as only doing military movies at the time.

“A long time ago, I was watching the Clint Eastwood movies of the day, like ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,’ or whatever the hell those movies he was making back then. And I thought, ‘His sidekick gets killed and he avenges [them] but the sidekick gets a great part, a great death scene.’ I was like, ‘I’ve got to call this guy.’ So I called him out of the blue and he said, ‘Would you ever want to do another service comedy?’” Murray said. “Because I just made ‘Stripes.’ And he had this great idea for an enormous Navy thing, and when he said, ‘would you ever want to do another service comedy?’ like, geez, ‘Would I become like [comedy duo] Abbott and Costello?’ I had to do military movies? And I said, ‘Well, God, I guess maybe I shouldn’t.’”

Murray continued, “It’s one of the few regrets I have is that I didn’t do it, because it was a big-scale thing, and I would have gotten a great…I don’t know if I’d have gotten a great death scene, it was more of a comedy, that one, but it was great. He had access to World War II boats and he could have like made a flotilla and stuff, and there was some cool stuff in it.”

And Murray admitted that he still apologizes to Eastwood whenever he crosses paths with the director: “When I see him, I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, I wish I’d done that, Clint, I’m really sorry,’” Murray said. The duo later had a famous viral karaoke duet and frequently golf together at the Pebble Beach celebrity tournament; Eastwood resides in nearby Carmel, where he served as mayor for years and also directed his first feature, “Play Misty for Me,” in 1971.