Comic-Con: Bill Murray Surprises at ‘Rock the Kasbah’ Panel

Comic-Con’s Hall H movie panels got off to a rockin‘ start with the first Con appearance of Bill Murray.

Murray was there with frequent collaborator Mitch Glazer to pitch to the geek crowd their newest movie, Rock the Kasbah, in which he plays a rock and roll manager down on his luck in Afghanistan.

Murray surprised the 6,000-strong crowd, a good majority of whom had slept in line overnight just to get in, by coming in the back of the hall, setting the groggy crowd into a frenzy of screams and photo flashes.

And when he was on the stage for the first few minutes, he stayed in character of Kasbah’s dubious manager, Richie Lanz, providing a slew of laughs along the way.

And while there more laughs to be had with Murray’s deadpan quips — the Q&A provided amble opportunities to Murray to shine — the comedian also tackled a wide range of topics, from the behavior of movie stars to touching upon the Confederate flag controversy.

One attendee asked Murray point blank if his Kasbah co-star Bruce Willis is a jackass.

Murray defended the actor, saying he’s a true movie star. And as one, sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands “of integrity, for one, and in the name of respecting the crew. There are people who try to take over a situation — I don’t want to use the word producer slime — and the movie star can step in the middle and say, ‘That’s not going to happen, boss.’ And that story gets repeated.”

Murray said he’s worked with Willis on two movies and “he wasn’t trippin’ at all.”

“The world is changing. It’s very slow. It doesn’t change when we want it,” he said, when asked about minority opportunities. “It’s planetary. It’s universal. It comes, but it comes slow.”

He then added: “There’s a flag flying in SC that people are upset about. But it’s going to change.”

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