Production on Aziz Ansari film ‘Being Mortal’ suspended
Production on “Being Mortal,” a film starring, directed and written by Aziz Ansari, has been halted due to a complaint against Bill Murray for “inappropriate behavior,” according to Deadline.
The complaint was filed last week and an investigation is ongoing, sources previously told the outlet on Wednesday when the story first broke. Ansari is not involved, insiders also said.
Murray’s rep did not immediately return Page Six’s request for comment.
Searchlight Pictures, the studio behind the movie, and Ansari’s rep did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.
Deadline cited sources who also clarified suspension was not related to COVID-19 and that Ansari, 39, and his producing partner, Youree Henley, are working with the studio to figure out next steps.
“Being Mortal” also stars Keke Palmer and Seth Rogen.
A source tells Page Six exclusively that Rogen, 40, was not involved in the complaint or investigation. Reps for Palmer did not immediately return requests for comment.
“Being Mortal” is based on the 2014 nonfiction book “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” by American surgeon Atul Gawande.
Gawande’s best-seller “follows a hospice nurse on her rounds, a geriatrician in his clinic and reformers turning nursing homes upside down,” according to his website.
The film had been scheduled to be released sometime in 2023 — although it is unknown whether the date will be pushed back due to the investigation.
Ansari has been slowly making his comeback to Hollywood over the past three years following a January 2018 Babe.net article that detailed a woman’s sexual experience with him as either clumsy lovemaking or sexual misconduct.
In February 2019, he announced his first official stand-up show in New York following the allegations and then returned to Netflix with a special later that year.
“There were times I felt really upset and humiliated and embarrassed, and ultimately I just felt terrible this person felt this way,” the comedian said during a set in February 2019.
“But you know, after a year, how I feel about it is, I hope it was a step forward. It made me think about a lot, and I hope I’ve become a better person.”
Murray, for his part, has a long history of celebrity feuds for his notorious mood swings.
Anjelica Huston labeled the now 71-year-old actor “a s–t” after they worked together in Wes Anderson’s 2004 film “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.”
Lucy Liu alleged that Murray began to argue with her on the “Charlie’s Angels” set using language that was “inexcusable and unacceptable.”