The movie Eddie Murphy always wants to be remembered for: “If I could only take one”
A career-defining role isn’t something that can be manufactured: it requires the perfect mix of actor, character, and movie, and most stars are lucky if they get one. Eddie Murphy has played several memorable protagonists, but there’s only one he wants to be remembered for.
As mentioned, some performers go through their entire professional lives without a definitive role, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Daniel Day-Lewis is undeniably one of the greatest ever to grace the silver screen, but can anyone say with any conviction that one part stands above the rest as the first that comes to mind whenever his name comes up?
On the other side of the coin, Harrison Ford has two. Most folks in Hollywood would kill for a part like Han Solo, who remains one of pop culture’s most indelible rogues half a century after Star Wars premiered. And yet, four years later, he doubled down when Raiders of the Lost Ark introduced Indiana Jones to a cinemagoing audience.
Having spent more than 40 years in the business, naming Murphy’s career-defining character is a matter of personal preference. Some can’t see beyond the wisecracking cop, Axel Foley, while others would die on the hill that Shrek‘s Donkey will be his enduring legacy, although anyone who suggests any of the multiple characters he played in Norbit isn’t worth listening to.
As for the man himself? He opted for a smash hit comedy that came along at the perfect time. By the mid-1990s, Murphy was facing accusations of being washed-up and irrelevant after his previously bulletproof box office armour became riddled with holes, so he decided to stick it to his critics.
After half a decade of misfires, with Murphy admitting he made Another 48 Hrs and Beverly Hills Cop III for all the wrong reasons, while The Distinguished Gentleman, Boomerang, and Vampire in Brooklyn drastically underperformed, remaking The Nutty Professor was the perfect movie at the perfect time.
His highest-grossing film in nine years by a comfortable margin that cleared a quarter of a billion dollars, Murphy showcased all sides of his comedic wheelhouse by bringing Sherman Klump and his entire family to life, earning a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Actor – Comedy’ for a tour-de-force performance that Ryan Reynolds is adamant deserved an Academy Award.
It breathed new life into a career that was in serious danger of stagnating, and its impact went far beyond the four corners of the screen. “I think if I could only take one movie to represent me, I would take The Nutty Professor,” Murphy told Jennifer Hudson, reiterating the film’s importance both personally and professionally.
Three decades on from its 1996 premiere and another comedic remake, Dr Dolittle, remains the only live-action production he’s starred in that made more money from cinemas. Murphy didn’t know at the time that The Nutty Professor would be about as good as things would ever get again outside of the Shrek franchise, but regardless of the ups and downs he’s endured in the years since, he still thinks it’s the picture that best encapsulates everything he brought to the business.
