You couldn’t pay Eddie Murphy enough to reprise the greatest role of his career: “Never going to happen”
Like almost everyone else on the planet, Eddie Murphy likes money. As one of the highest-paid actors of his generation, he also happens to have a great deal more of it than the average person.
After breaking through as a stand-up comedian, Saturday Night Live sensation, and bankable A-list superstar in the 1980s, at which point anything he lent his name to was guaranteed to draw an audience and earn a fortune, what nickname did his friends bestow upon him? ‘Money’.
Why did he make Best Defense, a film he subsequently described as “the worst movie ever done in the history of anything”? Because he was offered a lot of money for minimal contributions. Why did he make Another 48 Hrs and Beverly Hills Cop III? You know the reason: millions and millions of dollars.
Clearly, we have established that the Academy Award nominee enjoys being rewarded handsomely for his onscreen efforts, and those last two aforementioned flicks, along with the Shrek franchise, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, and Coming 2 America, have also made it patently clear that he’s not above returning to the well and reprising a role, whether his reasons are artistic or commercial.
And yet, the movie he considers the greatest thing he’ll ever make is permanently off-limits, and it sounds like it’s because he can’t be arsed. That’s fair enough, since Murphy is in his 60s now, and if he doesn’t want to put himself through the wringer when he doesn’t have to, then he won’t. Besides, he’s already played his favourite part of all time twice anyway, so it’s not like he’s missing out.
By the mid-90s, the once-mighty Murphy had suffered several flops in quick succession, leading many to question if his days as a top-line star had reached their natural end. David Spade certainly thought so, and his gag at the expense of Wes Craven’s Vampire in Brooklyn swore him off Saturday Night Live for the next three decades.
To prove to his critics that he could still put arses in seats, Murphy went all-in, playing seven characters in The Nutty Professor. He earned a Golden Globe nomination for his efforts, some are adamant that he should have gotten a lot more, and since it made almost $275 million at the box office, a sequel was inevitable.
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps was decidedly less successful, falling over $100 million short of its predecessor, with Murphy slightly upping the ante the second time around by playing eight characters. Across the two films, he spent a ridiculous amount of time in the makeup chair to be transformed into every one of them, never mind performing their scenes when he was on set.
With his comeback based largely on legacy sequels and middling genre fare, he was asked if audiences should ever expect to see the Klumps on their screens again. “Nooooo,” Murphy replied. “That’s never going to happen. Too much work.” Reprising one role is enough, especially if he’s being paid well, but there’s not enough money in the world to convince him to reprise an entire family.
