Eddie Murphy names the most important role of his career: “The first one that did it”
It goes without saying that Eddie Murphy is one of the most vital comedic voices to hit Hollywood in the last four decades. However, it can also be argued that he was the most important Black movie star of that time period, too. You see, in the history of American moviemaking, a frustrating myth has often reared its ugly head any time a predominantly African-American cast has appeared in a film: Black movies don’t travel. Murphy was instrumental in disproving this outdated idea in the 1980s – and it’s why he declared one role above all others as the most important of his career.
The myth that “Black movies” can only make money in America and not in the many, many other countries around the globe where they are released has long been a talking point for Black stars. Despite people like Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Samuel L Jackson and Halle Berry having tons of bona fide hits under their belts, the myth would still return anytime a film like Moonlight, Straight Outta Compton, or Get Out was preparing for release.
Lionsgate’s Jeff Clanagan told The Los Angeles Times that a problem arises when the goalposts keep changing for measuring a Black triumph. “Every time there’s a success, it gets swept under the rug,” he noted. “It’s almost like there’s an asterisk on it. They chalk it off as an anomaly.” He gave the examples of Murphy’s Coming To America and Smith’s Bad Boys, which weren’t seen as proof that Black movies could make huge money at the worldwide box office, but were dismissed as being sold by their genres: comedy and action.
For Washington, the myth is something that he’s heard many variations of – and he chose to pay attention to none of them. He told 60 Minutes, “I’ve heard everything, and what I hear keeps changing. They used to say it doesn’t sell here; then it does. Then they said it doesn’t sell in the South; then it does. Then they said it doesn’t sell in Europe; then it does. So, I just keep pushing. What an opportunity I have to prove them wrong.”
In truth, though, according to Murphy, one of his films obliterated this myth once and for all way back in 1984, four years before Coming to America and a full 11 years before Bad Boys. In fact, this movie was the number one hit at the worldwide box office in a barnstorming year that also included blockbuster hits like Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Gremlins, and The Karate Kid.
“Before Beverly Hills Cop, there had never been a movie that starred a Black man – a Black person – that was successful all around the world,” Murphy told Extra in 2024. “Even still, to this day, when Black folks make movies, most of the time [people will say] they work in the States and outside of the country, they don’t work. Beverly Hills Cop started it, the whole all around the world — that’s where you get Will and The Rock. They do it now, but Beverly Hills Cop is the first one that did it.”
Indeed, while Coming to America and Bad Boys may have featured more Black actors in their casts, Murphy is correct that the hilarious adventures of Axel Foley should have opened Hollywood’s eyes to the idea that ‘Black’ movies always had just as much of a chance of cashing in around the globe as any ‘White’ movie.
