Eddie Murphy was the face of comedy from his beginnings in the ’80s with his stint on Saturday Night Live, spanning to all the comedic characters in multiple movie franchises in the 2000s – it seemed he was at the top of his game.
But the 2010s ushered in a period away from the spotlight for the comedian, one that he has recently opened up about.
Murphy began his career at SNL at just 19. He came up with a number of memorable characters such as a grown-up version of the Little Rascals character Buckwheat and a morose version of character Gumby. These characters set him up for success in the stand-up comedy field, as well as films such as his debut in the buddy-cop film 48 Hrs (1982), Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Coming to America (1988), and more.
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But he cut ties with the show that gave him start after comedian David Spade made an unsavoury joke about his career.
Spade had held up a photo of Murphy and said: “Look children, it’s a falling star. Make a wish!”
In 2011 he reflected to Rolling Stone, “It’s one thing for you guys to do a joke about some movie of mine, but my career? […] And you know every joke has to go through all the producers, and ultimately, you know Lorne [Michaels, Saturday Night Live producer] or whoever says, ‘OK, it’s OK to make this career crack…'”
He only revived the relationship in 2015 when he was honoured at the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special.
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The ’90s began to see his decline, releasing sequels of all his once-successful films with the exception of The Nutty Professor (1996), which was deemed a huge comedy hit.
The film’s success saw him take a turn into family-friendly movies in the late ’90s and 2000s with roles in Mulan (1998), Dr. Dolittle (also 1998) and its 2001 sequel, the Shrek franchise, Daddy Day Care (2003), and The Haunted Mansion (2003), as well as Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000).
It was his adult-orientated films of this period that did not do well commercially, including Metro (1997), I Spy (2002), and Showtime (2002), and what is regarded a one of the biggest financial failures of all time, The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) which made $7 million worldwide against a reported budget of $110 million and about two decades in development.
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His role as James “Thunder” Early in Dreamgirls (2006) was lauded, winning him the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award in the same category. But when he missed out on the 2007 Academy Award, losing to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine, he stormed out of the ceremony.
In a candid podcast interview with Marc Macron in 2021, he revealed what tipped him over the edge.
“I had stopped making movies in 2011… Because I was making these shitty movies, and it was like, ‘This sh-t ain’t fun.’ They giving me Razzies; I think these motherf–kers gave me the Worst Actor Ever Razzie.”
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He had in fact received the 2010 Worst Actor of the Decade Razzie – a parody award for film failures.
He added, “Maybe it’s time to take a break when you get the ‘worst actor ever’ Razzie.”
He shared that he only intended to take a year off, but one year somehow turned into six.
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”I was only gonna take a break for a year. Then all of a sudden, six years go by, and I’m sitting on the couch.”
But the actor, now 62, realised that he couldn’t let his legacy end with throwing in the towel after a series of flops.
”Let me get off the couch and do some stuff and remind ’em that I’m funny,” he joked.
And indeed he did. His comeback began in force in 2019 with Dolemite Is My Name. It received huge critical acclaim, which led him to reprising his role in Coming 2 America, in 2021. He will soon be reviving the Beverly Hills Cop franchise with it’s fourth instalment Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley, coming in 2024.
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He is now taking another turn in his career, starring in his first ever Christmas movie, Candy Cane Lane, going back to his family-friendly roots in the action comedy fantasy, alongside comedian Tracee Ellis Ross.
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