I was given 12 precious minutes to sit down and talk with Eddie Murphyan artist who has dominated late-night TV, blockbuster movies, chart-topping music, and sold-out stand-up shows. For days, I pondered what I would ask, knowing how many life-defining moments he reveals in Being Eddiethe candid and intimate documentary chronicling his life, now streaming on Netflix.
Murphy shares a lot in this revelatory doc: the comedians that influenced him in his childhood years, how his love of life kept him from the dangerous pitfalls that took the lives of so many other stars of his generation and his love of MTV’s absurd stunt series, Ridiculousness. So, what would I bring to this intimate Q&A gathering?
Turns out, Murphy had a story to share with me first. Sitting across from the star at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, California, I explained how my nephewsages 8 and 10, had thought the theme song to Murphy’s wildly successful franchise, Beverly Hills Copwas a fun children’s anthem. Murphy then shared, “Busta Rhymes did a Harlem Nights-themed video. My son and his friend Donnie were watching it. When they saw [my movie] Harlem Nights for the first time, they said, ‘Oh, this is like Busta Rhymes.’ They thought that I got my s&#$ from Busta.”
That’s the brilliance of Murphy, who drops gems like this throughout his new documentary Being Eddiewhich premiered on November 12. The film chronicles his life from his early childhood years, when he discovered his knack for comedy, through to his modern-day accomplishments. It’s a fascinating deep dive into the comedic legend. But the documentary, in its final form, didn’t start out that way.
“This started out being that I was gonna do standup comedy again, so let’s do a documentary to show all the different stages of me putting a show together. We were doing that, and then the pandemic hit,” Murphy shared with EBONY.
“We had all these interviews from two to three years ago in quarantine. Afterwards, I didn’t know if I wanted to go out there and do standup, mother#$#&@ are catching COVID and falling; I don’t wanna be one of those.”
Murphy and team kept working on the project. “It worked perfectly because next year is 50 years of me in show business. So, this is the perfect moment for this documentary. It’s to commemorate my 50th year in this world.”
One of the biggest questions Murphy does toy with in the doc is whether he’ll ever return to the stand-up stage. His two official stand-ups, Eddie Murphy: Raw (1987) and Eddie Murphy: Delirious (1983), are among the most famous in comedy history, complete with sold-out shows and overzealous fans: his Being Eddie doc shows a woman in archival footage trying to get a little too close to Murphy during a meet-and-greet event.
As for returning to the stand-up stage, Murphy said, “One day it just has to strike me that I would have fun doing it.”
The beloved talent shares more insight into some of the biggest moments revealed in Being Eddieas well as the movie he wants to direct next.
EBONY: In the documentary, you mentioned that you were doing impressions before you got to SNL. Do you remember what was your favorite as a child?
Eddie Murphy: I just did voices my whole life. My very first impression is my brother, Charlie Murphy. He was the first one around. I did my uncles, relatives, and people in the neighborhood. One of the things that made me laugh when I was a kid was that I did impressions of the town bully, the cool person at the school, the school principal. I was able to do different voices really early.
Who is your most iconic SNL character?
Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood. That one still holds up.
You’ve done a lot of prosthetic characters. Is there one that holds a special place in your heart?
Uh, the Sherman Klump and the Nutty Professor, that was the most fleshed out of those characters. The genius, Rick Baker, is the makeup artist who brought that makeup to life. Sherman is like a real person. I could approach a person and talk, and you wouldn’t know. You’re just talking to Sherman Klump; he’s like a real guy. He’s not just funny. He has this heart stuff; he can make you feel sad, and he’s wrestling with this weight problem. It’s all of this stuff going on, other than just being funny.
One of the things I found most enlightening in the documentary is that you avoided the pitfalls that have taken so many greats of your time.
They even have a club, the 27 Club, where it’s all these artists that died when they were 27: Jimi Hendrix, Janice Joplin and Jim Morrison, all these different people that go out really young. I got famous when I was a baby. I’m 19 years old when I get on Saturday Night Live. To navigate through all of that and what can happen… It’s amazing. I love myself. So, I don’t have a self-destructive bone in my body. Always loved myself.
You directed the film Harlem Nights. What do you want to direct next?
If I direct something, it would be something that’s trying to be just funny in every frame. I want to direct this movie called It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. It’s a remake of an old movie, and it’s just comedy. If I direct something again, all I’d be trying to do is see what happens when I try to be funny every second. That’s what I want to do as a director. See what that turns into.
People might die from laughter, but it would be good.
You know what? In the early days, when I would do shows, they would have an ambulance there on site, just in case. We used to be like, “Wow, if somebody died that, that might be good advertising: I went to an Eddie Murphy show and somebody laughed so hard, they keeled over and dropped dead.” People would say, ‘Well, s#@%, I got to see that.”
In your documentary, you speak about not having an Oscar, which, damn it, come on Oscar people! But if they gave you an honorary Oscar, would that be acceptable?
I think there’s too much emphasis on the Oscar thing. I think eventually they’ll have to give me an honorary Oscar. You know, even if I’m 90 years old, I’ll take it then. I’m gonna wear a sky blue tuxedo, and I’m gonna come out, and while I’m giving my acceptance speech, I’m going to urinate all over myself right on camera and everything. And then when they start playing that music to try to make me stop urinating, I’m gonna urinate more. They’re gonna have to have people come and usher me off. And as they’re ushering me off, I wanna say, and keep my wife’s name out of your effing mouth! If they wait until I’m 90, that’s how it’s going to go.
You still got jokes. So, what else would it take for us to get you back on stage doing stand-up?
All the people that I know that do stand-up that don’t have to do stand-up ’cause they’re rich, for these super-rich dudes — it’s because they love it. Dave Chappelle loves doing stand-up, as do Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock. If I get that feeling where it looks like I’d have a ball doing it, I’d get up there and do it. So, I’m open to it. I have to get that little feeling.
People watching this documentary will be moved. What’s the one thought you want them to take from it?
I’ve been funny for a long time in a business where people come and go. They can say, and that’s all I wanted him to do. This guy, this guy’s been funny for years. He was being funny before I was born. A lot of people, I guess young people, they don’t realize…they think that you walked outta heaven into Hollywood, and that’s not the case. It was a whole different business when I got into this business. There was no Oprah yet. No hip-hop yet. No Michael Jordan yet. There’s just all of this stuff that became part of the culture and the fabric, and all that just didn’t exist yet. When I got famous, Jimmy Carter was the president. That says it all.
Being Eddie is now streaming on Netflix.
