While Eddie Murphy long ago cemented himself as an all-time comedy star, on stage, TV, and in films, in the last 20 years or so, he’s also made some poorly received choices.
For every “Beverly Hills Cop,” “48 Hours,” and “Shrek,” there’s been an “Adventures of Pluto Nash” or “Norbit” to dent his comedy reputation.
And don’t think he wasn’t aware. As he admitted in an episode of “WTF with Marc Maron” podcast: “I was making s****y movies. I was like, 'this s*** ain't fun.' They're giving me Razzies."
Razzies are the notorious yearly bad movies answer to the Oscars, and Murphy was becoming a frequent Razzie nominee. By the beginning of the 2010s, it seemed this once-certain box office stalwart had practically retired, mostly showing up voice-only in various "Shrek" short films.
As Looper reminds us though, in the last few years though, Murphy has parlayed a sly, slow comeback -- first with a dramatic turn as 1970s blaxploitation star Dolemite in the great “Dolemite is My Name” (2019); then the long-awaited sequel to “Coming to America” that was a hit earlier this year.
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But even at the height of his 1980s buzz, when everything he touched seemed to turn to gold, Murphy admits a career mistake he regrets when he passed on a now iconic Disney movie.
While perusing a script he was offered, Murphy told Jimmy Fallon in a 2019 interview, he thought, "What, animation and people? That sounds like bull**** to me!"
That “bull****” was “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” the enormous 1988 box office hit and groundbreaking film that mixed live-action with animation, creating a classic comedy adventure that stands up to this day.
Murphy had a shot at the role that Bob Hoskins crafted into the shlubby gumshoe, Eddie Valiant, who helped Roger Rabbit out of a murder wrap and into the arms of Jessica Rabbit.
Hoskins was already well-respected as a serious actor, playing dramatic roles in various excellent British crime films. And he expertly twisted his own typecasting into the film noir parody of Eddie Valiant, extending his UK fame into America.
Of course these sorts of “what if” casting stories come with no revisionist guarantees. Who knows where Murphy might have taken Eddie Valiant. It’s actually kind of hard to imagine Murphy in the role, but according to the funnyman himself, he imagines it every so often with some regret.
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But then in that same Fallon sit-down, Murphy recalled some amazing Prince stories he was involved in, and you realize, for a guy like Eddie Murphy, regrets probably last about two minutes.
It looks like the success of “Coming 2 America” has led to the greenlighting of "Beverly Hills Cop 4," which is in development at Netflix.
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