Lucy Liu recalls Bill Murray's 'inexcusable' comments on 'Charlie's Angels' set

Lucy Liu recalled a tense encounter she had with Bill Murray over two decades ago on the set of Charlie's Angels in 2000 during her appearance this week on the Los Angeles Times' "Asian Enough" podcast. 

Liu shared her perspective on her clash with Murray with hosts Johana Bhuiyan, Tracy Brown, Suhauna Hassain and Jen Yamato after the conflict had recently resurfaced due to a tweet from a former production assistant.

According to the actress, the animosity between the two began during rehearsal on a scene that had been reworked without Murray's knowledge.

“We had taken the weekend to rework that particular scene and Bill Murray was not able to come because he had to attend some family gathering,” Liu explained. “So it was everyone else, and we just made the scene more fluid."

She said that she wishes she had more to do with the rewrite of the scene but she didn't.

“Because I was the last one cast, and I probably had the least amount of privilege, in terms of creatively participating at that time," Liu added.

The 52-year-old actress said she didn't want to get into the specifics of what Murray, 70, said to her during the rehearsal of the scene but she did confirm that he started "to sort of hurl insults" at her after learning about the rewrite.

“I was, like, ‘Wow, he seems like he’s looking straight at me.’ I couldn’t believe that [his comments] could be towards me, because what do I have to do with anything majorly important at that time?” Liu said. “I say, ‘I’m so sorry. Are you talking to me?’—and clearly he was, because then it started to become a one-on-one communication.”

Liu called Murray's language towards her "inexcusable and unacceptable" and she said that she took a stand against it.

"I stood up for myself, and I don't regret it. No matter how low on the totem pole you may be or wherever you came from, there's no need to condescend or to put other people down," she continued. "And I would not stand down, and nor should I have."

The Elementary actress related the incident to a moment from her childhood when a condescending salesperson spoke down to her immigrant mother.

“But I don’t want to be that person that is not going to speak up for myself and stand by the only thing that I have,” she added, “which is my dignity and self-respect.”

Murray told his side of the story to the Times of London in 2009. “Look, I will dismiss you completely if you are unprofessional and working with me,” he said. “When our relationship is professional, and you’re not getting that done, forget it.”

Liu remembered seeing the story come out in the press and how she was painted as the problem when someone working on the movie claimed she called Murray a "c*cks*cker" and started hurling punches after he dissed her for being "a television actress."

"I didn't understand how it got flipped when I had nothing to do with instigating it or creating that platform of confrontation or anxiety," she explained. "So even though it's been decades, it's something that obviously I remember very intimately and have not forgotten."

Liu clarified where she stands today with Murray, saying, “I have nothing against Bill Murray at all. I’ve seen him since then at an SNL reunion, and he came up to me and was perfectly nice. But I’m not going to sit there and be attacked.”

BEFORE YOU GO: Lucy Liu joins ‘Shazam!’ sequel in villain role

[video_embed id='2180303']BEFORE YOU GO: Lucy Liu joins ‘Shazam!’ sequel in villain role[/video_embed]