Bill Murray Reflects on Loss of Gene Hackman: ‘One of the Best’ (Exclusive)

Naomi Watts and Bill Murray are dishing on their new drama “The Friend,” which has her playing a writer and teacher who finds her comfortable and solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her friend and mentor (Murray) dies suddenly and leaves her his beloved 150-lb. Great Dane.

“Extra’s” Mona Kosar Abdi spoke with Bill and Naomi, who both recently lost important people in their lives, famed director David Lynch and Gene Hackman.

David and Naomi became good friends after working together on his 2001 thriller “Mulholland Drive,” her breakout role.

She said, “It was a great, great loss, and I’m deeply sad about it.”

A month later, news would break about Hackman’s death.

Gene and Bill were co-stars in the 2001 comedy-drama “The Royal Tenenbaums.”

Bill commented, “When you talk about Gene, you talk about one of the best guys and a guy that all actors would look at and go, ‘Ah, uh-huh, that’s how you do that.' He was almost like reading an instruction manual of like, ‘This is how it’s done.’

“When you look at his work and look at what he’s doing, every next moment is gonna be accurate. It’s gonna be real, and it’s gonna be like, ‘Ah, g*ddamn, I wish I could have done that,’” Murray added.

Murray shared, “You know, when you lose these great ones — Michael Gambon was another one that I worked with in a Wes Anderson movie — one of the greatest actors and an extraordinary person that just being with him on the set, you felt like, okay, this is how you behave in life. This is how you sort of keep yourself close to yourself so that when you have to perform now, your machine's gonna be right there, ready to go."

He admitted, "I do have regrets about certain ones that I worked with that I wish I'd pressed them more and asked more questions instead of just trying to, like, get along with them and make them laugh or something. I wish I’d been a little bit more of an intentional student than an accidental one.”

Death is a major topic in “The Friend.”

Murray explained of their characters' friendship, "There's a mentorship and there's a creative, professional thing going on, and at the same time there's a personal relationship which happens and then is denied, unresolved. And then when life ends, there’s a lot of unanswered questions. So, trying to figure that out, what it all really meant, what it all really meant in life when it’s too late to live it any longer, that’s a hard one."

He noted, "People get that in our lives. We get it. We're like, 'God, I wish I had gotten that done with that person. I wish I hadn't ended it that way. I wish I had gotten to speak one more time.'"

Naomi chimed in, "Instead, she's lumbered with this gigantic oversized creature dominating her life and, you know, upturning everything. So, she's having to deal with her grief while managing this creature... It’s quite an unlikely story of how to move through grief.”

Naomi raved of her canine co-star, Bing, "I connected with him pretty much straight away... I was concerned because of his size and his strength and, you know, being out on the streets of New York where things are unpredictable, and people just wanna run towards him... He's so good-looking. He's so extraordinary. It's like holding onto a rockstar, like Mick Jagger or something... He's got a great personality."

Bill praised Bing as well, noting, "This is not an ordinary dog. This is a spectacular dog. This is like, you know, the sculpture of David. This is a big thing, and it's a very powerful being. It's not just large, he's very much, he's incredibly alert. His performance — you have to call it that — in the movie is perfect... I couldn't believe the responses that the dog had to the emotional scenes, that the dog's reaction was perfect. I don't know if you could get an actor to be that consistent, to get it right every time, because he always heard it, felt it."

Bill and Naomi also opened up on their bond, having done "St. Vincent" together before.

According to Bill, he took the job because Naomi called! He said, "I figured if she called, it was probably gonna be good, and she figured I would be good enough to do what she wanted done for her in this case. So, it was easy to say yes."

He quipped, "Coming to work with her was fun because I knew I could, you know, I could dominate her physically and that I could keep her, you know, laughing.”

Naomi added, “There was a good shorthand that because of having worked together before and fooled around.”

Bill clarified, “We didn’t fool around.”

Naomi reacted with amusement, “I didn’t mean that! The minute I said that, I was like, I just left you wide open.”

In all seriousness, Watts emphasized, “We had a banter, we had a trust, and it was easy.”