Why Eddie Murphy calls Quentin Tarantino “insane”
Among the greatest comedians of the late 20th century, there’s no doubt that Eddie Murphy ranks as one of the very best, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Jim Carrey, Bill Murray, Robin Williams and John Belushi. From stage star to screen icon, Murphy grew to become one of cinema’s most recognisable names, starring in comedy flicks and action movies, too, being best known for his Beverly Hills Cop series.
Rising to prominence in the late 1970s, inspired by the works of Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor and Peter Sellers, Murphy earned recognition in the industry following his significant performance at the Roosevelt Youth Center in 1976 when he impersonated Al Green, singing ‘Let’s Stay Together’. The iconic performance led to him later appearing in comedy clubs and late-night bars, for which he had to sneak out of his home to perform.
By the 1980s, he began appearing in a number of high-profile movies, notably starring alongside Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis in the John Landis comedy Trading Places before he made the first film in his Beverly Hills Cop franchise in 1984. Helmed by Martin Brest, the genre hybrid told the story of a young cop investigating a murder in Beverly Hills who clashes with the area’s culture.
An instant critical and commercial success, the movie made $316million from a budget of just $13m, making Murphy something of a surprising box office diamond. Predictably, sequels came in 1987 and 1994, yet, despite the continued success of the series, a fourth film never followed, to the surprise of fans and Murphy himself.
As a lover of classic 1980s cinema, there’s little surprise that the director Quentin Tarantino saw Beverly Hills Cop as a potential franchise that he would have invested in, approaching the actor whilst he was making Inglourious Basterds. Wanting Murphy to star in his WWII movie, the actor recalled the conversation, stating: “Quentin is insane but good insane. He came to me with an idea for another Cop, and we’ve been talking about that. If it comes off, great – he’s one crazy guy worth working with”.
Despite thinking that the Pulp Fiction director is a little “insane”, Murphy states that he would be interested in another movie in the series. Speaking in a separate interview with Collider, he added: “We tried for years and years, maybe 10, 12 years, and I must have read five or six different scripts, and it was never right. The studio was like, ‘Let’s go. Here it is.’ It was like, ‘It’s just not it.’ Jerry Bruckheimer got back in there, and he knows his shit, and he put it together”.
Take a look at the trailer for the original 1984 movie below.
