TV

HBO’s Vice Principals is bonkers, and Danny McBride revealed at SXSW how he cast Bill Murray in it

My first-night highlight at SXSW 2016, easily: Watching the first two episodes of Vice Principals, the new HBO series from Danny McBride and his collaborators Jody Hill and David Gordon Green, which premieres in July.

They all attended Friday night’s world premiere screening in Austin, along with McBride’s co-star, Walton Goggins, who played a deviously delicious villain in FX’s Justified and ramps up the sassy charm to go toe-to-toe with McBride.

Did you know Bill Murray appears in this series, too?

McBride dished about Murray’s pivotal role in Vice Principals, and how he convinced the comedy star to appear in it. It’s just as weird for TV and movie stars to get Bill Murray in their projects as it is for everyone else.

I relayed McBride’s story in full on Decider.com.

Here’s an excerpt:

“He took us to see P.F. Chang’s in the Atlanta airport. He was just selling us hard on Charleston. He loves it. He lives there. So we came back to shoot there, we were trying to figure out who was going to be Principal Welles, and I was like, ‘Maybe we can try Bill and see if he’d be up for it.’ So I sent him an email. Didn’t know really if he’d respond to it or not, asking him if he’d be interested in checking out the script. He kind of responded — ‘Please deliver me a hard copy at the RiverDogs baseball game tonight.’”

For more: How Danny McBride convinced Bill Murray to cameo in his hilarious new HBO series, Vice Principals, on Decider.com.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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