Bill Murray hasn't broken through into the Academy Awards conversation for his performance as Franklin Delano Roosevelt in "Hyde Park on Hudson," but he probably doesn't mind.
"They [Focus Features] look at this film as an award-winning film, and that road is paved with glass and razor wire, as far as I'm concerned," he said to GQ in a new interview. Murray is on the cover of GQ's January issue.
Before its debut earlier this year, "Hyde Park on Hudson" was viewed as a potential chance for Murray to exorcise some Oscar demons; he was nominated for Best Actor in 2003 for "Lost in Translation" but lost to Sean Penn at the Academy Awards.
"The one time I got a bunch of prizes, I just assumed I'd win them all," he told GQ. "Because I'd been winning them all. I wasn't disappointed or anything, but I was surprised."
As Murray recalled, however, six months later, he realized that losing did have an affect on him:
Some part of me was disappointed that I got tricked into thinking it was important. I told myself, if that happens again, I don't want to do that. I've since realized that it was good I didn't win, because I wasn't ready. Guys go for five years without working because they're thinking, 'Oh, this isn't Oscar-worthy.' They become paralyzed. So. It would have fed that thing that I found in myself, without my even knowing. It would have been really malformed. Because I had it wrong."
This isn't the first time Murray has recounted war stories about Oscar season. At the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Murray told reporters a similar tale about losing to Penn.
"Shame on myself for getting caught in it," he said. "But it's a funny thing and people get prizes. People don't get prizes. That's not why you work. It's nice when you do.”
Even so, as Murray noted, many fans do think he won.
"I never try to say, ‘No, that isn't true,'" Murray said. "I just say, 'You're so kind.'"
For more on Murray, including a look at some great photos he took for the magazine, head over to GQ.
[via GQ]
