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Eddie Murphy admits he has a few regrets when it comes to his film career.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, the 64-year-old “Coming to America” star shared which movies he turned down over the course of his career he wishes he would have said agreed to.
“Yeah there’s a couple of movies. ‘Ghostbusters,’ I was supposed to do ‘Ghostbusters.’ Didn’t do that, and ‘Rush Hour.’ Didn’t do that. Oh, and ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit.’ Those are my big three ‘wish I would have done’ movies.”
When asked why those specific films stood out to him, Murphy said, “They were huge giant hits.”
Murphy admitted he regrets turning down “Ghostbusters,” “Rush Hour” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” (Steve Granitz/FilmMagic)
EDDIE MURPHY PAID FOR FUNERALS OF CELEBRITY FRIENDS WHO DIED BROKE IN HOLLYWOOD
The first “Ghostbusters” movie was released in 1984, and made more than $243 million at the box office domestically, and had a 1989 sequel. “Rush Hour” famously went on to have two sequels, while “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” brought in over $156 million domestically.
“Well, with ‘Ghostbusters,’ I did ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ instead. So, it was like, it was do this or that, so it worked out cool. And, ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ just sounded ridiculous to me, and I passed on it. And afterwards, I was like, ‘Oh that’s f—ing amazing.”
While he regrets not participating in those movies, his career did not suffer. He went on to play many iconic characters in movies like, “The Nutty Professor” and “Dr. Dolittle.” He later received an Academy Award nomination for his work in the 2006 movie, “Dreamgirls.”
Murphy takes a look back at his legendary career as a comedian in the new Netflix documentary, “Being Eddie,” starting from his early days as a teenage comic.
Murphy explained he starred in “Beverly Hills Cop” instead of “Ghostbusters.” (Chad Salvador/Variety via Getty Images)
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During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month, Murphy shared that “it wasn’t going to be this type of documentary” originally, but was supposed to cover his return to stand-up comedy.
“Then COVID hit, and everything shut down,” he explained. “Afterwards, I was like, “I’m not sure if I want to do stand-up,” because I was paranoid about COVID. We worked on this thing for five, six years, and now, coincidentally, it’s my 50th year in show-business — a milestone for anybody in any business.”
One of Murphy’s most popular roles is as Donkey in the “Shrek” franchise. The fifth movie in the franchise is set to release in 2027, 17 years since the fourth movie was released.
The new film will see the return of Cameron Diaz and Mike Meyers as Shrek and Fiona, and adds Zendaya as one of the couple’s triplets.
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Murphy, Diaz and Myers are reprising their roles as Donkey, Fiona and Shrek in the upcoming film, “Shrek 5.” (Steve Granitz/WireImage)
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“You have a headache after a ‘Shrek’ session. The donkey has a lot of singing. You’re on 10, and you’re doing it over and over again. The great thing, though, is it’s appreciated. Everybody loves the movie,” he said. “Nothing’s worse than working really hard on something, and doing makeup and sweat and all this s—, and then you put it out, and they’d be like, “Two thumbs down.” You go, “I was in the makeup chair for 50 hours!”