On the Rocks star Bill Murray says bond with Sofia Coppola 'just keeps getting better'

They got Lost in Translation back in 2003, but, 17 years later, Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray have found movie magic within each other once again.

In EW's exclusive featurette from their new collaborative comedy On the Rocks, Coppola explains that, following the success of her Oscar-winning drama — which starred Murray as an aging actor who befriends a soul-searching twenty-something (Scarlett Johansson) after their paths cross in Tokyo — she was "reluctant" to reunite with the actor for another feature because there was "too much expectation" for her to replicate their past success.

"I feel like now that I've known Bill all these years, he's a friend and like a big brother," Coppola says, admitting that she eventually warmed up to the idea of directing him in a film that played to his strengths: Portraying a swaggy, martini-swigging playboy who, after his daughter (Rashida Jones) suspects her husband (Marlon Wayans) of having an affair, helps her spy on his every move. "His character character swoops in and brings magic and life to the situation. He's sort of this fairy godfather."

Murray says that he's developed "great trust" in Coppola as a person and a filmmaker: "I'm having more fun watching her all the time. She was just a child when she made [Lost in Translation] and she just keeps getting better."

Coppola also says the film is one of her most "personal" works to date in that Jones' character "reflects where I've been living and the details of parenthood and struggling with being creative and trying to find your footing" amid a mid-life crisis, and that, like her lead characters, making On the Rocks prompted a full-circle moment that forced her to look inward.

"In Lost in Translation, I was a young woman in her twenties finding herself," Coppola finishes. "And now this is another phase, and hopefully by the end the characters have gotten something from each other."

On the Rocks is now playing in theaters via A24 and Apple Original Films, and debuts Friday on the Apple TV+ subscription streaming service. See EW's exclusive featurette with Coppola and Murray above.

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• Sofia Coppola reveals Rashida Jones' sweet connection to Lost in Translation
• Sofia Coppola reunites with Bill Murray, Rashida Jones in fizzy On the Rocks trailer