Aziz Ansari still hopes to finish his movie with Bill Murray after misconduct allegations

Indeed, Murray said in April, three years after the incident, that he doesn’t “go too many days or weeks without thinking about what happened on Being Mortal.” The movie may genuinely mean a lot to the actor, but in the New York Times interview, he seemed more concerned about being treated unfairly in the investigation; in his experience with the studio’s HR, “there was no conversation, there was nothing, there was no peacemaking, nothing” except for “lunatic arbitration” which didn’t meet his idea of justice. It was a much more embittered statement than his original comments on the incident, wherein he said he was cooperating with the investigation and hoped to finish the movie, adding with humility that he was taking time for self reflection about his behavior. 

Promises of self-reflection echo Ansari’s own remarks regarding the 2018 #MeToo-adjacent allegations leveled against him, which he last addressed in his 2019 special Right Now. The comedian suggested he’d taken time away from the spotlight to process, admitting he felt “terrible” about the situation. But when addressing the situation for the first time since the special in conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Ansari downplays having taken a hiatus after the controversy. “It wasn’t really a break, per se. I did that tour, and I wanted to address it in the special because people were curious about how I felt about the whole experience. So I felt like I had to talk about it in the special,” the Parks & Recreation alum explained. He did not, however, feel like he had to apologize publicly to his accuser for the alleged sexually aggressive behavior. “I mean, I apologized to the person personally, right? When it happened.”