Movieline Burrows to the Heart of Bill 'Badger' Murray

And there it was: That vague threat of menace -- that touch of madness -- that marbles through his greatest performance and spills frequently into his personal life. In his recent profile of the actor, the London Times's Kevin Maher writes, "The threat of sudden emotional violence is always lurking within." Unlike anyone at our table (and thank god for that), Maher had the stones to ask Murray about McG's recent assertion that he headbutted the director squarely on the forehead during the shooting of Charlie's Angels:

"That's bulls***! That's complete crap!" says Murray, flushing slightly yet maintaining composure. "I don't know why he made that story up. He has a very active imagination." He pauses. The subject seems closed, but then a minor eruption. "No! He deserves to die," he says, coldly staring, without breaking deadpan. "He should be pierced with a lance, not headbutted."

Deadpanned threats of turning the director of Terminator Salvation into a delicious McG-kebab notwithstanding, it's hard to reconcile the mythologized Murray of menace with the one who'd hop behind a bar to pour pints for locals, as pub owner and sons looked on in gape-jawed amazement; or the one effortlessly cracking up a ballroom of stuffy British journalists; or the one demanding to know, before a crowd of 1,600 gala attendees, where the "popcorn is."

Yes, I'm quite happy to report, the real Bill Murray does not disappoint.

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