The movie that stopped Eddie Murphy from quitting acting: “This doesn’t usually happen”
For four years after starring in 2012’s A Thousand Words, a fantasy comedy-drama that tanked at the box office and was lambasted by critics, Eddie Murphy didn’t see much point in acting. In fact, during this period, Murphy considered himself retired from the movie business, unless something came along that reignited his fire and gave him a reason to act again.
Thankfully, for fans of the man who was once Hollywood’s undisputed king of comedy, a project did come his way that intrigued him. He read the script front to back in one sitting, and was struck by how emotional it made him. You see, this screenplay was unlike anything Murphy had ever been considered for before, and it would require him reaching into an entirely different bag of tricks than the likes of Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, or The Nutty Professor.
In 2016, Murphy was disarmingly honest with Mashable when he admitted he had no desire to get back in the game until he read Mr Church, a drama about an alcoholic live-in chef hired to help an ailing woman and her young daughter. The script was written by Susan McMartin and was based on the family friend who cooked for her as she grew up, and eventually became so integral to the family unit that he helped raise her. That real-life basis made the script extremely poignant, and it immediately tugged at Murphy’s heartstrings.
“I wasn’t looking to do anything,” Murphy confirmed. “I was on the couch, retired, and the script popped up. And I was like, ‘Hey, this is really emotional and written well.'” The comedy icon admitted that he usually read scripts in “four or five sittings” of 30-40 pages each, but he found himself breezing through Mr Church while barely pausing for breath. “I just shot through it in like an hour and was sitting there crying like a punk,” he laughed. “This doesn’t usually happen when I read stuff.”
As someone not used to being moved to tears by a script, Murphy was taken aback by Mr Church’s power. Then, when he discovered Driving Miss Daisy’s Bruce Beresford was directing the film, he knew the project had pedigree behind it, and realised “it’d be easy to do this, and it was uncharted waters.”
Part of this new territory for Murphy would be playing an introverted character; someone who is closer to his personality in real life, but a million miles away from anything he’d previously played on-screen. “I never did anything like this,” he told the Awards Chatter podcast. “There was no pressure at all because there was no expectation because this isn’t a funny thing. The engine of this thing isn’t my sense of humour.”
So, Murphy eagerly signed up for the movie, ending his self-imposed exile from acting, and delivered arguably his most mature, nuanced performance. Sadly for him, the film didn’t exactly land with critics or audiences. It was dismissed as schmaltzy, mawkish, and emotionally manipulative, and barely even made $1million at the box office.
However, the few people who saw it at least seemed to agree that Murphy gave a good account of himself as a dramatic performer, even if much of his role seemed to consist of tamping down his usual instincts. It would then be another three years before Murphy made another movie – 2019’s Dolemite is My Name, a true return to form that saw him nominated for a Golden Globe. Without Mr Church getting his juices flowing again, though, it’s entirely possible fans would never have been treated to that Netflix hit.
