The movie Eddie Murphy regrets making: “They’re giving me Razzies”
The career of Eddie Murphy has been a fascinating thing, with the actor and comedian enjoying one of the most meteoric rises in Hollywood history before gradually sliding back down to earth through a string of poor choices.
In the 1980s, he was one of the biggest stars on the planet who could seemingly do no wrong. Whatever Murphy touched turned into gold, whether it was as a stand-up comedian, a Saturday Night Live cast member, an instant A-list movie star, or even a recording artist. Of course, all good things must come to an end, but he didn’t do himself any favours by constantly choosing such dire projects for himself.
Murphy earned Golden Globe nominations for three of his first four film appearances, Beverly Hills Cop was the highest-grossing release of 1984, 48 Hrs laid down the template for the buddy cop caper that would inspire a slew of imitators, and Raw is still the top-earning comedy concert movie to ever hit the big screen. It would be impossible to maintain that momentum forever, but he gave it his best shot nonetheless.
Trading Places, Coming to America, Harlem Nights, the Beverly Hills Cop sequels, and The Nutty Professor ensured the hits kept on coming, but the shine began to come off Murphy’s star when he developed a habit of signing on for unanimously panned dreck, which frequently tended to be comedic vehicles where he indulged his fondness for playing multiple characters.
A Thousand Words, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, The Haunted Mansion, I Spy, Meet Dave, Daddy Day Care, and Imagine That all combined to chip away at his reputation as a bulletproof box office draw and a barometer of quality comedy but none of them had an impact anywhere near as detrimental as Norbit.
It might have been Brian Wilson’s favourite movie of 2007, but he must have been the only one who had it top of the pile. It was an inexplicable hit among the ticket-buying public, but the after-effects arguably robbed Murphy of his crowning achievement. For a rare dramatic turn in Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls, he was the odds-on favourite to be named ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the Academy Awards.
Murphy had already claimed the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, Critics’ Choice Award, and countless others in the corresponding categories, but when Norbit occupied the other end of the spectrum and scooped him Razzies for ‘Worst Actor’, ‘Worst Supporting Actor’, and ‘Worst Supporting Actress’ in one fell swoop, the vitriolic response to the awful film was marked out as the main reason why Alan Arkin pulled off an upset and won the Oscar for his performance in Little Miss Sunshine.
It even soured him on acting altogether, with Murphy admitting one of the reasons why he drastically scaled back his workload was because he was “making shitty movies” too often. “I was like, ‘This shit ain’t fun,'” he reflected. “They’re giving me Razzies.” They certainly were, but it’s not like he didn’t deserve them, although Norbit was the worst offender by far.
Who does Eddie Murphy play in Norbit?
Murphy did at least boast an impressive success rate for Norbit, with all three of the characters he played winning him a Razzie. It might not be what he had in mind, but it’s hard to say that he didn’t deserve it.
In addition to the nerdy title character, Norbit Albert Rice, Murphy also plays his overbearingly manipulative and frequently violent wife, Rasputia Latimore, and Mr Wong, the kindly Chinese owner of a local orphanage where Norbit was raised as a child.
The first netted him ‘Worst Actor’, the second gained him the prize for ‘Worst Supporting Actress’, and the third landed him the gong for ‘Worst Supporting Actor’. Playing three roles and winning Razzies for every single one of them is undoubtedly a rare and unique distinction, albeit one that hammers home just how awful Norbit was in every fibre of its being.
