Good luck, Roos told Melfi.
Melfi had the 1-800 phone number that Bill uses to screen his calls.
He called up, listened to the generic voicemail greetingunpersonalized by Billand left a message.
What number are you calling?
Melfi recited the 1-800 number.
Thats what I got, Nochimson said.
Melfi wrote it and sent it to a PO box in upstate New York.
Two weeks later, Nochimson called back: Bill thought the letter was swell.
Can you send him the script?
Melfi sent it to another PO box, this one in Marthas Vineyard.
Melfi sent another copy, this one to a PO box in South Carolina.
Is now a good time?
Now is thebesttime, Melfi assured him, and pulled over.
I dont Google people, Bill told him.
Thats not my thing.
Can you tell me who you are and what you do and why?
Melfi stammered his way through a twenty-minute monologue about hustling his way through his career as a commercial director.
That all sounds good, Bill assured him.
Id love to sit down with you for a coffee tomorrow.
Melfi assented: He was shooting a commercial that day, but he knew he could make time.
Bill added, and Melfi had to decline.
How about Friday, then?
Melfi eagerly agreed: Yes, he could be in New York on Friday.
No, in Cannes.
Dont worry about it, well connect later.
Ill call you in a couple of weeks.
Three weeks went by.
Melfi eagerly agreed, strapped on a back brace, popped a Vicodin, and drove to the airport.
I think Im with you, Melfi told him.
Melfi thought, Oh God, he doesnt know anything either.
Soon enough, however, Bill strolled toward them with a golf bag.
Whats with the back?
I threw it out, Melfi told him.
You gotta stretch, Bill counseled.
You want to talk about the script?
Lets go for a drive.
The driver in the rumpled suit escorted them to a town car.
First stop: In-N-Out Burger, where they picked up four grilled-cheese sandwiches and four orders of french fries.
Melfi confessed to Bill that he was vegan.
Thats an awful life, Bill said.
Bill gave Melfi a tour, showing off groves of trees: orange, tangelo, avocado.
Melfi excused himself to use the bathroom.
Dont forget to jiggle the handle, Bill told him.
When Melfi finished, Bill said, I think were good.
Lets make a movie.
Do you want to do this with me?
Melfi assured him that he would love to make this movie with him.
But he had one favor to ask: Could you tell someone other than me that this happened?
Because Im not sure theyre going to believe youre doing the movie if you dont tell them.
Vincent,came out in 2014).
He lives in the moment more than anyone Ive ever known.
His whole life is in the moment.
Bill doesnt care about what happened; he doesnt think about whats going to happen.
He doesnt even book travel two ways.
Bill buys one-way tickets and then decides when he wants to go home.
Theres no bullshit, no manipulationits so honest and so pure to have someone like that around.
Bill stayed at a friends apartment in Williamsburg.
And then he gave the production back all the money for hotels.
Hed throw on a clean shirt and come to the set.
A lot of comedians come in and do their schtick.
And Bill doesnt put his stink on something.
When hes in a scene, nothing else exists.
He brings everyone else there with him, and you have to be prepared for that ride.
Hell do anything: Hell run, hell jump, hell scream.
Hes not a hijacker: He believes improv lives within the scene.
Bill has a lot of children, so hes a big texter.
Sometimes hell text one word and sometimes a long paragraph.
They designed a whole look for his physical being: He looks like an old Brooklyn war vet.
He said, Thank youI just had them Waterpikd.
I said, Yeah, I think theyre too great.
He goes, Okay.
And then a day later he had a special veneer shipped in from London.
That scene when he finds out his wife dies and he falls down?
It was the last shot of the day.
And then there were times when Vin was having a great time, like when hes at the racetrack.
Bill stole a golf cart that day and rode around the actual track until security came and got him.
Hes not trying to slow things down, but he likes to wander.
If he sees a scooter and a bike, hell go look at it.
Another time, I couldnt find Bill, so I called his assistant Chris.
Bill answered Chriss phone: Hello?
Yeah, hes getting a sandwich.
He found a great sandwich shop.
Would you like one?
Okay, Ill tell Bill, no worries.
He had heard about the very best sandwich shop in the Bronx.
And we were shooting only five or ten minutes away, so he drove there.
He came back and said, Thats the best sandwich in the Bronx.
Excerpted from THE TAO OF BILL MURRAY by Gavin Edwards.
Copyright 2016 by Gavin Edwards.
Excerpted by permission of Random House, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
