12 February 2014, Los Angeles, California, USA
Murray is asked whether there was a moment when art really mattered to him at the press conference for The Monuments Men . Full press conference below.
Well I think it would be back when I started acting in Chicago, I wasn’t very good, and I remember my first experience on the stage, I was so bad I just walked out onto the street and started walking. And I walked for a couple of hours, and I realised I’d walked the wrong direction – not just the wrong direction in terms of where I lived but the wrong direction in terms of a desire to stay alive.
Well - this might be not completely true but it’s pretty true.
So, I thought, ‘maybe if I’m going to die where I am, then I’ll walk towards the lake and maybe I’d float for a while after I’m dead’. So, as I walked towards the lake and I realised I’d hit Michigan and I thought, ‘well, Michigan Avenue that runs north too’, and so I started walking north and ended up in front of the Art Institute of Chicago. And I just walked inside, and I didn’t feel like I had any place being there, and they used to ask you fro a donation and I just walked right through because I was ready to die, I’m pretty much dead.
And I walked in and there is a painting there, and I don’t even know who painted it, but I think it’s called The Song of the Lark, and it’s a woman working in a field, and there’s a sunrise behind, and I’ve always loved this painting, and I saw it that day, and I just thought, ‘well look there’s a girl who doesn’t have a whole lot of prospects, but the sun is coming up anyway and she’s got another chance at it. And I think that made me think, ‘I too am a person and I get another chance every day the sun comes up”.
The Song of the Lark, by Jules Breton