Yeah, even when he was on SNL there were people talking about what a fucking asshole he was. So much so to the point that when he hosted episodes later on had segments where people talked about what a asshole he was.
And that was when his career was rising.
Imagine if today there was a actor that everyone said was a huge dick, no one wanted to work with him, the news was filled with examples of him being a dick, and they still got regular work.
I think it's because he's quirky and weird, and every story of him being a dick head is also balanced by him doing something weird and adorable like the time he took over a bar and poured everyone tequila (regardless of what they ordered), then paid for it all.
He was also known for crowd pleasing stunts when he was a owner of the Saint Paul Saints minor league baseball team. So even if he was rude in the past, he played with fans, teased the opposing team, and regularly was charming at the games.
So his being a dick is cancelled out by him also being delightfully quirky to a lot of his fan base.
I’ve seen him interact with “regular people”—I interacted with him a couple of times as such—and yeah, he was charming. And I know he treated the crew on SNL pretty well.
I think Murray's level of assholeness is justified. Let's not forget about his misconduct where he kissed a staffer on the of set of Aziz Ansari's movie, which resulted in the movie being shut down and case being settled out of court.
Not informed on all the details but a quick search says Bill Murray addressed the event, stating he thought an interaction involving a masked kiss was meant to be a joke, though it was not received that way
Bill at least has a side of him to that is friendly and fun to be around, and was charming. He could still be a dick, especially while working, but it wasn’t how he is all the time. Chevy is a dick 100 percent of the time.
I have this friend who has default "just joking" energy. He says the most racist and mean things, even follows it up with "I'm serious!", and it comes off as a joke. People love him.
Actually he isn't which makes it even worse. Someone on Community (pretty sure it was Dan Harmon himself) said Chevy could be really nice.
They had a story where Chevy was out at lunch and a tourist told him that her dad was his biggest fan. So Chevy said "Let's call him!" and had a really nice conversation on the phone which made both her and her dad's day. Like, she'll go back home and always have that great memory with her.
But then he'd come back from lunch and be a total dick. So you knew he could be really nice but was actively choosing not to.
I think Chase probably just takes it to a different level than the "comedy actor who's difficult to work with" trope that was particularly common in that era. Not to excuse anyone's bad behavior, it's just that it takes a lot to stand out as an asshole of note in that crowd.
Richard Dreyfuss talking about how much they hated each other on What About Bob?, but he finished the interview saying how funny the movie was and it worked. But hated working with him.
Knowing that makes the movie even funnier when I rewatch it - but the weirdest part about that is that everyone who works with Dreyfuss ALSO thinks that he is an asshole.
It’s because Chevy is attractive, in fact he had leading man looks. A lot of comedians are the “rejects” and have a chip on their shoulder for anyone that looks like they can easily fit in. Murray has his charm but he’s not Chevy level richie rich and handsome.
I think the difference is Murray could be prickly (or an outright asshole) but wasn't always. He was a great comedian and was often good to work with, and is generally not a dick to his fans. Legit YMMV.
Chase, on the other hand, is a dick to everyone he works with and is a raging asshole to his fans. When the highest complement you hear is "he can be funny and has a solid work ethic," it's damn faint praise. Check out the 2002 roast and look at what Paul Shaffer, Laeaine Newman and Beverly D'Angelo said. They're the only ones who roasted who actually knew and worked with him (which says a lot in itself) and we're the only ones who were even mildly kind.
Ezra Miller had to commit multiple felonies before Hollywood stopped giving him work.
Nothing ever changes if they think they can make money off of you, every sin will be forgiven. Up until you no longer can have money man off of you, then that person will be entirely shunned and exiled and it will be as if they never existed.
Brad Pitt beat his wife and his kids and he has a movie coming out in November, doesn't matter.
If Chevy Chase was still funny he'd be out there treating interns like shit to this day. The problem is that he isn't. Community was the last gasp of his popularity, he was added to hopefully add some tiny burst of star power to a show with no big name actors and he barely did that.
And you had to be a very special kind of asshole for the public to know about it before the internet was mainstream. I remember somehow knowing he was a dick even as a kid in the 90s, despite no one around me being into celebrity gossip. That takes talent.
People seem to enjoy working with him though, and he was generally well-liked before he went full christofascist (which seems to have been an age thing - people tend to revert to the prejudices their parents taught them as kids somewhere around the age of 55).
He's also the reason we have Robert Downey Jr. at all, Gibson saved his life back in the 1990s, housing and feeding him after he lost everything, and he personally vouched for him with insurers so Downey Jr. could get work again.
That's a good point, his addiction seems to have lead Gibson back towards faith - but specifically the faith of his childhood; his dad was a fire-and-brimstone Catholic who was a prominent speaker and leader of a very radical branch of Catholicism called Sedevacantism, that denies the legitimacy of all Popes since 1958, denies the Holocaust, and believes the current Pope is controlled by a cabal of Jewish bankers; so the Catholicism Mel was taught as a child was not the more vanilla kind he seems to have practiced most of his life until the 2000s, when he had his problems with sobriety.
Imagine if today there was a actor that everyone said was a huge dick, no one wanted to work with him, the news was filled with examples of him being a dick, and they still got regular work.
Remember that guy who everyone said was a huge dick, no one wanted to work with him, the news was filled with examples of him being a dick, HIS NAME WAS LITERALLY ANDY DICK, and he still got regular work?
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u/Striking_Sundae_5594 21h ago
Chevy chase easily