Bill Murray has always had a unique perspective on life – when it comes to setbacks, he sees them as opportunities for growth
Comedy icon Bill Murray recently reflected on his infamous 2004 Oscar snub, describing it as a lesson in detaching from ego and desire.
The 74-year-old actor was the front-runner for Best Actor after his career-defining turn as Bob Harris in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. He’d already cleaned up at the Golden Globes and BAFTAs, making his loss to Sean Penn (Mystic River) a shock—at least to him.
Speaking on The Howard Stern Show, Murray admitted he assumed he had the trophy in the bag. “I won every other prize for Lost in Translation, so I just sort of thought I was gonna win, ’cause I’d won everything—every single one,” he said.
His disappointment was hard to miss on the night, with celebrity body language experts dissecting his attempt to play it cool in the audience. But two decades later, Murray sees the loss differently, calling it “kinda good.”
“I realize that I’d actually gotten sort of infected by wanting to win it. It attracted a low-grade virus of the desire for more,” he shared. “I had it for about six months; it had to wear off. So I did learn a lesson from it that if I’d won, I might not have ever seen.”
Ultimately, Lost in Translation still made its mark, winning Coppola an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and cementing its legacy as one of the defining films of the 2000s. Meanwhile, Penn’s win was undeniably deserved—his searing performance in Mystic River was in a league of its own.
Murray, for his part, has long since moved on. “You realize, after a while, that it really doesn’t mean that much,” he said. Spoken like a man who’s already won the only prize that really matters: eternal cool status.
