It sounds like Bruce Willis had to try hard to get to “Die Hard.”
Bill Murray says the action star once had a surprising job to do when he worked on “Saturday Night Live” before he hit it big in Hollywood.
While a guest on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” on March 31, Murray was talking about Wes Anderson movies when he brought up “Moonrise Kingdom,” which featured him and Willis.
“I got to work with, and have a wonderful time with, Bruce Willis. We should remember today. He just had a birthday. Bruce Willis is a good guy, a good f—— guy,” Murray said.
Murray then spilled the beans about one of Willis’ early gigs.
“He was a good friend and really always understood — Bruce Willis was a page at NBC when I was on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ He was a page. And his job was to come and to refill — this sounds like insane s—, but his job was to come and go to the dressing rooms and refill the M&M’s and pretzels kind of thing in the actors’ rooms,” he said.
“And I remember when I met him after he was already a successful guy, he said, ‘You and (late former “SNL” star) Gilda (Radner) were nice to me.’ And I thought, ‘OK.’ I always thought, ‘OK, I’m good with this guy.’ He was a good guy.”
Murray and Willis would cross paths again long after Willis’ days of feeding actors on “SNL” ended. In addition to “Moonrise Kingdom,” the pair also starred in “Rock the Casbah.”
Willis, who turned 70 last month, would also return to “SNL” in a much different capacity after his career took off, hosting the show in 1989 and 2013.
He has kept a lower profile in recent years after his health took center stage. His family announced in 2022 he had been diagnosed with aphasia, and in 2023, they shared his condition progressed to frontotemporal dementia. The neurodegenerative disease, also known as FTD, usually initially affects communication and behavior, instead of memory, which can be impacted later on, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
In December, Willis’ wife, Emma Heming Willis, paid tribute to him on their annivers, while acknowledging the hardships they face.
“17 years of us 
,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Anniversaries used to bring excitement — now, if I’m honest, they stir up all the feelings, leaving a heaviness in my heart and a pit in my stomach. I give myself 30 minutes to sit in the ‘why him, why us,’ to feel the anger and grief. Then I shake it off and return to what is. And what is… is unconditional love. I feel blessed to know it, and it’s because of him. I’d do it all over again and again in a heartbeat 
.”
