10 Times Actors Had Personal Reasons For Taking Film Roles

After Chevy Chase's departure from SNL for bigger roles after one season, Lorne Michaels quickly swapped him for Bill Murray, a completely different talent. While Chase was the king of a dry, improved one-liner or pratfall, Murray was more refined, though occasionally bombastic. He also had aspirations beyond being a comic actor that weren't truly realized until Wes Anderson made use of him.

That didn't stop him from trying to stretch out early, however. He agreed to star in Ghostbusters on the condition that the studio fund his passion project, an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel The Razor's Edge - a contemplative work of an aimless WWI veteran who travels the world and ultimately discovers himself through transcendental meditation and Buddhist philosophy, swearing off his entitled social class.

Murray still brings with his performance a bit of levity, and though the film was a flop, it was an earnest attempt by the actor to branch out. It's also a fairly solid performance, particularly when he is forced to eulogize his unlikable, hard-ass supperior officer (brother Bryan Doyle) after a battle. He is clearly exorcising a lot of demons about Belushi's death in his speech. In the end, Murray's gamble failed, but it was not without nobility.