The iconic director Eddie Murphy has always dreamed of working with: “The best of all time”
Eddie Murphy‘s career is one that all the great comics have studied over the last four decades. His hilarious style of humour owned the stage during the dark times of Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s, with his sketches bringing the house down at Studio 8H, Rockefeller Centre. His standup career has seen sold-out arenas and stadiums, and he would become a generational movie star (and even a recording artist) throughout the decade.
However, the Beverly Hills Cop actor would soon hit a wall in the late ’90s and early ’00s, forcing him to pivot slightly into family-friendly films. It also saw him earning an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ in 2006’s Dreamgirls. You’d think Murphy’s career would take second wind after something like that. However, throughout that time, he flew a bit off the radar. Still getting the praise for what he did for the world of comedy from his peers, but no real project on his plate to help back his almost mythic persona.
Luckily, over the last decade or so, Murphy re-emerged in the world of films appearing in blockbusters and indie projects, a revival of Beverly Hills Cop on Netflix, and who can forget his role as the famous B-movie actor/comedian Rudy Ray Moore in Dolemite Is My Name, which generated some award-season buzz for the actor.
Murphy is an artist, so he observes other artists. Naturally, with such an expansive filmography of having worked in comedies of every kind, many are always curious as to who the favourites of this great are. It turns out that he admires a lot of iconic filmmakers, and they aren’t exactly known for their comedies. He sat down with Vulture in 2016 to discuss everything from his film, Pluto Nash, to his return to standup, and in this, he was asked about what directors he admired and would love to work with.
“I would love to be in a Steven Spielberg movie,” Murphy said, “I think he is the best director of all time. But I don’t be sitting around dreaming about the shit. [Laughs]. And I love Martin Scorsese, [Quentin] Tarantino. Whoever, you know, ain’t trippin’.”
It’s crazy to think that with both Spielberg’s and Murphy’s meteoric rise to fame in the 1980s, these two did not cross paths on a project before. One can only wonder at what this collaboration could have brought up 35 years ago, or even now, for that matter. Both are very versatile artists if you think about it. Spielberg’s aesthetic of cinematic storytelling is a blend of brilliant lighting, camera angles that only he could bring to a shot list, and character arcs that allow audiences to invest themselves in the story. Within all of that, the stories the Oscar-winning director chooses to put on screen are very diverse. His filmography ranges from tragic Holocaust films to retellings of Peter Pan.
Murphy’s versatility is something we’ve also witnessed over the last four decades. His stage presence in SNL to stand-up specials like Delirious is unmatched. His onscreen presence, even in his worst film, still carries his movie star charm. He, too, has even sat in the director’s chair once before with 1989’s Harlem Nights. Let’s also not forget that great comedians often make great dramatic actors.
What really connects them is the idea of how significant a player they both are in Hollywood, decades after they landed their first gig. Nobody is saying anything bad about the two of them. Spielberg and Murphy both have the respect of their peers as well as the ones who came before and after them. That sounds like a recipe for success.
All three directors Murphy mentioned are also known for guiding a golden statue into the hands of the actors they have worked with. Not that the comic needs it; he’s a bona fide movie star now and for generations to come. But think of the sight of Murphy standing on the most significant stage in the movie business, one late February or early March, receiving an award that cements his legacy.
