Murray and director Ivan Reitman teamed up for the 1979 movie, later joining forces on the supernatural comedy classic “Ghostbusters.”

Meatballs star says no one knew if Bill Murray would even show up to shoot his film debut: ‘He’s still like that’

Murray and director Ivan Reitman teamed up for the 1979 movie, later joining forces on the supernatural comedy classic “Ghostbusters.”

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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September 29, 2026 5:58 p.m. ET

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Bill Murray in ‘Meatballs’. Credit:

- Kristine DeBell says the *Meatballs *crew was afraid star Bill Murray wouldn’t show up on set.

- The summer camp comedy, directed by Ivan Reitman, marked Murray’s film debut.

- DeBell recalled that “no one was sure Bill was coming” to the 1979 film set. “He does that stuff all the time.”

Bill Murray is what made 1979’s *Meatballs *so special. But he almost didn’t make it at all.

According to Kristine DeBell, Murray’s costar in the film that marked his big-screen debut, the rising Canadian comedian began establishing an M.O. on the *Meatballs *set that he’d carry with him throughout his storied career.

“Murray, I’d heard about him. He had just started on *Saturday Night Live*. He was friends with [director Ivan Reitman],” DeBell recalled on the Sept. 26 episode of the *Pop Culture Retro *podcast. “No one was sure Bill was coming. He does that stuff all the time.”

Kristine DeBell, Cindy Girling, Bill Murray, Sarah Torgov, Margot Pinvidic, and Norma Dell’Agnese in ‘Meatballs’.

Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

*Meatballs *tells the story of sly jokester Tripper Harrison (Murray), the lead counselor at a laid-back summer camp located in Ontario. Murray and Reitman would go on to make film history just five years later with the release of the instant classic *Ghostbusters*.

But back in sunny Ontario in 1978, DeBell recalled that the non-professional children used for the camp scenes “were actually getting out of camp. So they filmed the [opening] scene when the kids were there and they all, you know, signed waivers, whatever. ‘You’re going to be in a movie.’”

There was just one problem: Murray wasn’t there.

“In the opening scene with all the kids, he just walks across the field and I look, we’re all looking at him going, ‘Hey, so nice of you to show up,’” DeBell joked. “No, we didn’t say that. But [it] was just so much fun.”

* *has reached out to a representative for Murray for comment.

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“It’s my understanding,” DeBell added, “speaking to a woman that still knows him, plays golf with him or something — he’s still like that. You never know.”

Murray did ultimately turn up for the entirety of the *Meatballs *shoot, and the film became a classic of its own, grossing an impressive $70 million on a sub-$2 million budget.

And DeBell isn’t alone in recalling Murray’s elusiveness. In a 2017 oral history for *Vanity Fair*, producer and co-writer Dan Goldberg remarked, “We had our cast, but there was still the matter of Bill [Murray]. ‘Is Bill going to do it? Will he show up?’ I didn’t know if he ever read the script. Then he kind of committed, but not really. Three days before we start shooting, we have no idea if it’s going to happen.”

Actor Russ Banham recalled feeling “deflated” when it was Murray who turned up instead of who he remembered as the original casting choice, Dan Aykroyd. And eventually, casting director and actor Jack Blum noted, “Bill turned up in this Hawaiian shirt and red shorts, wearing an alarm clock on his wrist, which eventually found its way into the film.”

You can watch DeBell’s full interview on *Pop Culture Retro *above.

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Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Comedy”