By the late 1990s, Bill Murray was one of the biggest comedy stars in the world, commanding a salary per picture of about $9 million. But did you know when Murray agreed to star in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, he made just $9,000, and when the studio refused to give Anderson the money he needed for a crucial helicopter shot, Bill Murray wrote a check to cover the costs. That’s just one of the facts featured in the last episode of You Think You Know Movies!

It’s a crazy story but it’s true: Murray agreed to star as the voice of Garfield the Cat in the live-action version of the long-running comic strip because he believed he was signing on to work with Joel Coen, of the Coen brothers. In fact, the movie was written by Joel Cohen, who had worked on the screenplay for Toy Story, and would later write films like Evan Almighty and Daddy Day Camp. (The damn ‘h’ in his name is silent.)

‘You Think You Know Movies?’ is a ScreenCrush original series that dives deep into the cinematic worlds of your favorite movies and freeze frames a few tidbits you might not have known. We’ve already tackled Star Wars, The Avengers and Spider-Man, but now we’re making a quick change and talking about the life and career of Bill Murray. Watch more installments of ‘You Think You Know Movies?’ below and let us know in the comments what movies we should cover next.

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