Actor Bill Murray used hypnosis to cure his allergy to cats so he could share scenes with a feline in his film St. Vincent.

The Lost in Translation star plays a curmudgeonly hermit who spends most of his time with his pet cat Felix in the new movie, so Murray took an unconventional measure to treat his allergy to film with the animal.

He told comedienne Ellen DeGeneres in an interview on her U.S. talk show on Wednesday (22Oct14), "I read someplace that allergies are psychosomatic and you can actually hypnotise yourself and overcome the allergy.

"So I used to do that. I used to go to girls' houses and they had cats and all of a sudden I'd be looking at them crying and they'd be like, 'What did I say?' and I'd go, 'No, it's not you!' So I learned to hypnotise myself and get over it.

"But then I decided I didn't really like cats that much, so I stopped. I'm more of a dog guy. But for the movie I went back to that and it worked."