{"id":95810,"date":"2022-10-13T11:32:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T11:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/geena-davis-reveals-bill-murray-harassment-left-her-dying-from-shame\/"},"modified":"2022-10-13T11:32:18","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T11:32:18","slug":"geena-davis-reveals-bill-murray-harassment-left-her-dying-from-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/geena-davis-reveals-bill-murray-harassment-left-her-dying-from-shame\/","title":{"rendered":"Geena Davis reveals Bill Murray harassment left her &#8216;dying from shame&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<aside class=\"gnt_em gnt_em__fp gnt_em_vp__tp gnt_em__el\" aria-label=\"Video - Geena Davis says she's 'honored' to receive the Governors Award at the Primetime Emmys\"\/>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">For many, over-politeness is merely inconvenient.  For Geena Davis, it was almost fatal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The actor, now 66, says she nearly died when she was 8 on a harrowing drive with her 99-year-old great uncle Jack.  As Jack veered in and out of oncoming traffic, Davis and her parents declined to comment on his driving \u2013 even with a car fast approaching.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">At the last moment, Jack swerved back in his lane, narrowly missing a head-on collision.  Still, the experience sent Davis a clear message: Never say <em>anything<\/em> impolite, no matter the circumstances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">This struggle \u2013 of being too polite to stand up for oneself \u2013 serves as the through line of Davis&#8217; memoir, &#8220;Dying of Politeness&#8221; (HarperOne, 277 pp., out now).  The Academy Award winner details her humble Massachusetts upbringing, starry film career, three marriages, extensive archery training and many, many instances of detrimental politeness along the way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;Because of certain roles I played, people sometimes think I&#8217;ve been a bada&#8211; my whole life or something, and that&#8217;s not the case,&#8221; Davis, who starred in &#8220;Thelma &#038; Louise&#8221; and the action movie &#8220;The Long Kiss Goodnight,\u201d says over Zoom.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_img gnt_em_img__inset\"><\/figure>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Crippling politeness hasn&#8217;t just landed Davis in awkward social situations: It&#8217;s also kept her from speaking out about mistreatment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">In her book, Davis alleges she harassed while working with Bill Murray on the 1990 movie &#8220;Quick Change.&#8221;  She writes that the comedian pressured her into letting him give her a massage in a hotel suite during her meeting for her role.  Another day, Murray screamed at her in front of over 300 people on set while she waited for wardrobe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;I was shaking all over, dying from shame,&#8221; Davis writes, adding Murray intended &#8220;to make sure I knew my place.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">USA TODAY has reached out to a representative for Murray for comment.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_img\"><img class=\"gnt_em_img_i\" style=\"height:440px\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/02\/10\/USAT\/7ca78800-c319-4154-bd61-27b19d0c95ba-Oscar068.JPG?ssl=1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2020\/02\/10\/USAT\/7ca78800-c319-4154-bd61-27b19d0c95ba-Oscar068.JPG?width=1320&amp;height=880&amp;fit=crop&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp 2x\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"For many, over-politeness is merely inconvenient.  For Geena Davis, it's almost been fatal.\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Davis says sharing painful memories with the world through her book gives her a &#8220;strange&#8221; feeling. <\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;It&#8217;s much different than a movie that&#8217;s gonna come out that you were in, because it&#8217;s not a character, it&#8217;s me,&#8221; she says.  &#8220;I can&#8217;t even remember writing it in a way.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Davis also writes of a traumatic childhood experience: When her neighbor molested her when she went to deliver him his newspaper.<\/p>\n<aside aria-label=\"advertisement\" class=\"gnt_m gnt_x gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__al\"\/>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Like others who have similar abuse, Davis said gravity didn&#8217;t grasp the gravity until she was an adult.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;You don&#8217;t realize how bad it is at the time,&#8221; she says.  &#8220;You don&#8217;t let yourself realize what has happened to you, and it&#8217;s only later you go, &#8216;Wow, wait a minute. That was horrible.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Davis&#8217; mother confronted the neighbor about the incident, but no police report was ever filed.<\/p>\n<aside aria-label=\"advertisement\" class=\"gnt_m gnt_x gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__al\"\/>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;My big lesson in life was you can&#8217;t ever complain about anything,&#8221; Davis says.  &#8220;You can&#8217;t draw that kind of attention to yourself by complaining about something. So I didn&#8217;t talk about it, but I wanted to talk about it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A formative friendship helped teach Davis to speak up for herself \u2013 her bond with her on-screen partner-in-crime and &#8220;Thelma &#038; Louise&#8221; co-star Susan Sarandon, a woman who, Davis writes, &#8220;very simply and clearly said what she thought.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gnt_em gnt_em_anc\" id=\"gnt_atomsnc\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" data-gl-method=\"loadAnc\" aria-label=\"Newsletter signup form\"\/>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><strong>Geena Davis&#8217; &#8216;Dying of Politeness,&#8217;<\/strong> comics mastermind Alan Moore&#8217;s &#8216;Illuminations&#8217;: 5 new books<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">Davis has also since spoken out against Hollywood inequity through her organization, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which strives to increase media diversity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The research her institute conducts hits close to home for Davis, who says she experienced Hollywood ageism and sexism firsthand when her acting opportunities plummeted as soon as she turned 40.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">A recent study by her institute found that characters over 50 made up less than a quarter of all characters in top-grossing domestic films and popular television from 2010 to 2020. Of those characters, men made up four out of five of them in film, three out of four in broadcast TV and two out of three in streaming TV.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;That&#8217;s an incredibly small slice of the pie for everybody 50 and over that&#8217;s female,&#8221; Davis says.  &#8220;I thought, &#8216;Well, it&#8217;s not gonna happen to me, because I got all these great roles.&#8217;  I was sure that things were gonna change before I got to 40, but they didn&#8217;t.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><strong>Geena Davis recalls director<\/strong> who made her sit on his lap: &#8216;I didn&#8217;t know you could say no&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">The key to becoming the strong woman she is now speaking her mind sooner rather than wishing she had later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;That should be absolutely natural for everybody \u2014 to be able to just say what they think,&#8221; Davis says.  &#8220;So many of us don&#8217;t ever get there and really live authentically in the moment. My life&#8217;s goal was to close the gap between when something happens and when I react authentically to it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<aside aria-label=\"advertisement\" class=\"gnt_m gnt_x gnt_x__lbl gnt_x__al\"\/>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">It&#8217;s a goal she hopes readers will want to strive for after reading her book.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">&#8220;Most everybody actually can relate to feeling like they&#8217;re not living authentically and that they&#8217;re hiding parts of themselves in order to get approval from someone or from the world,&#8221; she says.  &#8220;At least through my experience, it&#8217;s possible to get past that, no matter how long it takes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><strong>Geena Davis says Hollywood could achieve parity:<\/strong> &#8216;Cross out&#8217; men in scripts and sub women<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"gnt_em_gl_i\" data-g-r=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2022\/08\/29\/USAT\/5e876f7d-b6c3-42a2-ac53-702e06df8013-The_Light_We_Carry.jpeg?resize=660%2C372&#038;ssl=1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2022\/08\/29\/USAT\/5e876f7d-b6c3-42a2-ac53-702e06df8013-The_Light_We_Carry.jpeg?crop=1799,1012,x1,y506&amp;width=1320&amp;height=744&amp;format=pjpg&amp;auto=webp 2x\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"372\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For many, over-politeness is merely inconvenient. For Geena Davis, it was almost fatal. The actor, now 66, says she nearly died when she was 8 on a harrowing drive with her 99-year-old great uncle Jack. As Jack veered in and out of oncoming traffic, Davis and her parents declined to comment on his driving \u2013 &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/geena-davis-reveals-bill-murray-harassment-left-her-dying-from-shame\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Geena Davis reveals Bill Murray harassment left her &#8216;dying from shame&#8217;<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94041,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/geena-davis-shares-bad-audition-for-bill-murray\/","url_meta":{"origin":95810,"position":0},"title":"Geena Davis Shares Bad Audition For Bill Murray","date":"October 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Geena Davis hasn't worked with Bill Murray in decades because of the way he treated her on the set of Quick Change. Looking back on the 1990 film, Geena says she should have walked away in the very beginning, as soon as things started to get uncomfortable. In her new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":102299,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/i-shut-down-jack-nicholsons-sexual-advances-using-advice-from-dustin-hoffman\/","url_meta":{"origin":95810,"position":1},"title":"I Shut Down Jack Nicholson&#8217;s Sexual Advances Using Advice from Dustin Hoffman","date":"October 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Geena Davis steered clear of Jack Nicholson post-\u201cTootsie\u201d fame.Davis, who worked as a model before being cast in a bit part in \u201cTootsie\u201d opposite Dustin Hoffman, revealed to The New Yorker that Nicholson propositioned her after a dinner with casting directors. As a newly-minted actress, Davis channeled advice her co-star\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93353,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/geena-davis-details-bill-murray-harassment-on-quick-change-set\/","url_meta":{"origin":95810,"position":2},"title":"Geena Davis Details Bill Murray Harassment on &#8216;Quick Change&#8217; Set","date":"October 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\"I could have avoided that treatment if I'd known how to react or what to do,\" Davis said. In her upcoming memoir \u201cDying of Politeness,\u201d Geena Davis alleges a toxic experience working with Bill Murray on the 1990 movie \u201cQuick Change.\u201d She accuses Murray of behaving inappropriately toward her during\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93728,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/i-should-have-walked-out-deadline\/","url_meta":{"origin":95810,"position":3},"title":"\u201cI Should Have Walked Out\u201d \u2013 Deadline","date":"October 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Geena Davis is opening up about a \u201cbad\u201d experience she had with Quick Change co-star Bill Murray on the set of the 1990 movie. The star recalled in her new memoir Dying of Politeness an uncomfortable meeting with Murray, who co-directed the crime comedy with Howard Franklin. The Times (UK)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93514,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/geena-davis-says-she-had-bad-audition-with-quick-change-costar-bill-murray-before-he-yelled-at-her\/","url_meta":{"origin":95810,"position":4},"title":"Geena Davis says she had &#8216;bad&#8217; audition with Quick Change costar Bill Murray before he yelled at her","date":"October 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Geena Davis has detailed her unpleasant experiences working with Bill Murray on their 1990 crime comedy Quick Change in her new memoir Dying Of Politeness.The 66-year-old acting icon revealed on Friday to The Times of London how Murray allegedly created an uncomfortable atmosphere during her audition for the film, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Bad time: Geena Davids, 66, wrote in her memoir Dying Of Politeness about her terrible experiences working with Bill Murray on their 1990 crime comedy Quick Change;  seen in 2019 in LA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/10\/11\/02\/63326455-11301453-image-a-8_1665451760728.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":94780,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/geena-davis-calls-out-bill-murray-for-bad-way-he-acted-when-she-first-met-him\/","url_meta":{"origin":95810,"position":5},"title":"Geena Davis calls out Bill Murray for &#8216;bad&#8217; way he acted when she first met him","date":"October 12, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Geena Davis has reflected on a \u201cbad\u201d encounter with Bill Murray early on in her career.the Thelma & Louise actor worked with Murray on 1990 movie Quick Change. During their first meeting, the actor, who was 39 at the time, is said to have insisted on using a massage device\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Entertainment&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2022\/08\/29\/USAT\/3d1b7e5c-436f-42ad-a15c-126933f11f49-Dying_of_Politeness.jpg?width=300&height=455&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95810"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}