MovieChat Forums > Lucy Liu Discussion > is she a good actor?

is she a good actor?

posted 7 years ago by Jes' Sayin' (6360)
7 replies | jump to latest

She's been pretty successful, so I'm trying to understand why Bill Murray thinks she can't act:
https://theplaylist.net/did-bill-murray-hate-shit-out-of-lucy-20080703/
“What actually transpired was much more intense. Bill Murray stopped a scene in progress and pointed to Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu saying in order, “I get why you’re here, and you’ve got talent….but what in the hell are you doing here. You can’t act!” At that, Liu blew her lid and attacked Murray, wildly throwing punches. The actors had to be separated to opposite corners of the room while they lobbed verbal hand grenades at each other.With a Columbia Pictures gun to their heads, both actors would publicly downplay in incident but insiders know better. Bill Murray would not do any sequel with Liu attached and was subsequently replaced by Bernie Mac.”

Was that just Murray's way of annoying her or does he have some kind of point? Does she play the same character every time?

[–] actionkamen (23176) 7 years ago

It's official! Bill Murray is racist!

[–] FredBurroughs (21465) 7 years ago

She's good at playing a heartless bitch devoid of human emotion, so she'd deliver a top-notch performance as my ex-fiancée.

[–] PaladinNJ (21510) 6 years ago

I think they didn't get along on the set. I think what you posted was just the culmination of everything.

[–] snepts (11123) 6 years ago

Who the heck knows? Maybe Bill was just giving her some gas to see how she'd react. Then when she goes ballistic, there you go ! We all have to take some heat with aplomb, and maybe it's just in jest to see whether you have a healthy sense of yourself.
Or Murray could be a complete douche, I don't know. I'd like to think he didn't react to her Asian appearance, but jeebus -- who the heck knows? I take no sides in this row.

btw, Elementary has been running for quite a while now. I don't watch it, not because it's not good, I'm just not available or interested when it's on. She must be doing something right.

[–] Jes' Sayin' (6360) 6 years ago

Thinking more about it, I'm guessing the reality is probably something like the following. Lucy Liu is a good actress. Bill Murray is a very good actor who thinks deeply about his roles. I think he must have thought he saw something in her, that she could go to the next level, and tried to be her mentor. But the understanding between the two was not good -- they are not simpatico. So instead she took his well meaning attempt to mentor as criticism, and reacted accordingly. When he saw that, he must have felt like, what, you reject my good advice?! and snapped back. So probably what we're hearing are the words of a disappointed and rejected would-be mentor.

[–] horrorfan000 (2308) 6 years ago

Murray,Barrymore and Diaz are miles above her in acting talent.That's not to say she's a bad actor.She's just average.She can say the lines and act the scene but i don't see her ever being a contender for an oscar.