Ryan Reynolds had a full house laughing at the State Theatre in New Jersey this week when he opened up about the chaos of locking down Bill Murray for his new Colin Hanks-led John Candy documentary. The Deadpool star, who’s producing the film, had made it his mission to get a hold of the Hollywood legend, who famously only has a voicemail set up for people to try and reach him.
For decades, Murray has had a 1-800 Number set up that will go straight to voicemail. People have two minutes to pitch their idea and Murray's role in the project if they want to get a call back.
After finally getting the number “from a friend of a friend of a friend,” Reynolds gave it his best shot: “Hey Bill, Ryan Reynolds here. I’m making a documentary about John Candy. I’m just hoping I could pick your brain. I’ll come to you; I’ll do whatever it takes," he recalled, per DailyMail.
Reynolds told the crowd he left about 40 voicemails, joking that Murray’s voicemail “is a Greek shipping company.”
But when Murray actually called back, the timing couldn’t have been worse. Reynolds was in a tux, about to walk into a "gala thing" with his wife, Blake Lively, when his phone started going off. “I look at it. It says Bill Murray and I go, "Bill Murray!" he reenacted.
Lively had one thing on her mind: getting inside. “She goes, ‘We have to go in!’” And that’s when Reynolds blurted out, “I’m like, ‘F**k you!’”
After the initial call, Murray said he would get back to him, but Reynolds started "running out of time." Now "desperate," he left another 40 messages." When it failed, he roped his kids in to help. He sent Murray a video of one of his daughters climbing on his head, with his son screaming, "I said, 'If you say no to a child like that, I don't know what kind of monster you are.'"
That did the trick. Murray replied, “Two seconds later,” with, “What do you need from me for JC?”
The documentary, which also features Steve Martin, Martin Short, Macaulay Culkin, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, and more, clearly means a lot to Reynolds.
Despite the expletive, the couple clearly moved past it. They just celebrated 13 years of marriage and share four kids together: James, Inez, Betty, and Olin
Bill Murray's famous voicemail
Murray, who famously has no agent, publicist, or manager, has opened up in the past about his hilarious setup. “I had a house phone, and it would just ring and ring,” Murray said in 2019, per IndieWire.
“Finally, I’d pick up the phone and I’d say, ‘Who in the fuck is calling me and letting my phone ring like that?’ The agent would say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I’m calling for so-and-so.’ I’d say, ‘Look, you can’t do this. This is my house. If I don’t answer the phone, don’t do that because you’re making me not like you," he continued. “I just unplugged the phone and then I got this 800 number, which is very handy,” the Academy Award nominee explained.