The one actor Eddie Murphy has always known is out of his league: “That’s what I want to do”
Even though his career reached such a nadir that he removed himself from it entirely to avoid winning any more Razzies, and his comeback has turned into an uninspiring re-tread, one thing you could never call Eddie Murphy is a failure.
After all, he’d conquered Hollywood by the time he was in his late 20s, becoming the industry’s highest-paid and most bankable leading man, breaking new ground for Black performers by becoming the first star to headline a succession of international box office hits.
That was after he’d become one of Saturday Night Live‘s most famous breakout sensations, and at the same time, he was pushing stand-up comedy to new levels, with 1987’s Raw still the highest-grossing live special ever released in cinemas. Based on how much he was accomplishing and how young he was when he was accomplishing it, there was no chance he’d keep it up forever.
Once upon a time, though, Murphy had big dreams. The biggest, in his estimation, since he wanted to emulate the multi-faceted icon who he believed was the greatest of all time. He considered Charlie Chaplin to be the ultimate benchmark in big-screen comedy, and for his money, he hadn’t seen “anyone come along that was better than Chaplin,” which spans roughly a century of cinema.
Chaplin was a towering figure and game-changing influence in more ways than one, and being as ambitious as he was, Murphy was adamant that if he set his mind to it, he could do something similar. “I want to do movie scores,” he told Ebony in 1985. “I want to do all that stuff. Charlie Chaplin used to write, direct, produce, star, and score movies. That’s what I want to do.”
Fair play to him for setting his sights as high as possible, but he only attempted to emulate Chaplin once, at most, and it backfired. The SNL veteran wrote, directed, executive produced, and played the leading role in 1989’s Harlem Nights, and he’d be the first to admit that he’d bitten off more than he could chew.
Murphy won the Razzie for ‘Worst Screenplay’, the picture underperformed at the box office, and the backlash stung him so much that he immediately retreated to his comfort zone to follow it up with a safe sequel, Another 48 Hrs. Since then, how many feature films has he directed? Zero.
Since then, how many times has he received either a story or screenwriting credit on a movie? Four. Since then, how many times has he been credited as a writer and producer on the same production? Twice. In his entire career, how many times has Murphy composed the score for a film? Another zero.
It may have been youthful ambition, or perhaps Murphy really believed he was capable of becoming his generation’s Chaplin by pulling quintuple duty on his projects. He achieved that feat precisely no times at all, and the only time he quadrupled, it taught him a harsh lesson.
