The Will Smith role Eddie Murphy was too greedy to play: “He costs too much”
After conquering the stand-up comedy circuit, becoming a household name on Saturday Night Live, and seamlessly reaching the top of Hollywood’s A-list within four years of his screen debut, Eddie Murphy deserved his spot as one of the industry’s highest-paid stars.
Going from strength to strength, everything he touched in the 1980s turned to gold. His initial run of films from 48 Hrs to Coming to America combined to earn over a billion dollars at the box office, his comedy feature Raw is still the highest-grossing stand-up concert ever released in cinemas, and he was Paramount’s undisputed golden child, pun definitely intended.
It’s hard to maintain a trajectory so stratospheric, with Murphy’s stock gradually sliding downwards in the early 1990s. A couple of flops in quick succession had many prognosticating that his moment in the spotlight was over, only for the star to rebound with The Nutty Professor, the picture he made specifically to stick it to the critics who were accusing him of being washed up.
Murphy already had one iconic buddy cop franchise under his belt with Beverly Hills Cop, but he could have added another if his asking price wasn’t so high. Between his third outing as Axel Foley and his Nutty Professor comeback, Michael Bay’s Bad Boys arrived to usher in Will Smith as the next big thing.
It was the former Fresh Prince star’s first major leading role in a movie and his first time dipping his toes into the action genre. Much like Murphy a decade earlier, he wasted little time in reaching the summit and earning his ‘King of Summer’ nickname as blockbuster cinema’s top dog.
However, things could have turned out differently for both of them had Martin Lawrence’s sister not changed his mind. “I had a deal with Sony, and this was a movie that they brought to me to see if I wanted to do, and I just had to find a partner to do it with,” he explained. “And so I was thinking about doing it with Eddie Murphy, but you know he costs too much.”
“My sister was the one who told me, ‘You should do it with Will,'” he explained, a decision that’s turned into the gift that keeps on giving with four Bad Boys flicks in the can. For comparison, Murphy earned a hefty $15 million salary for Beverly Hills Cop III, which is roughly two-thirds of the entire production budget for Bay’s high-octane actioner.
Smith wasn’t working for chump change, but his reported $2 million pay packet was a drop in the ocean when measured against Murphy’s usual demands. The role of Mike Lowrey was transformative for Smith’s fledgling big-screen career, an opportunity he may not have gotten had Lawrence convinced Murphy to star in Bad Boys.
