NEED TO KNOW
\nEddie Murphy sat with PEOPLE for a rare deep-dive interview to discuss his new Netflix documentary Being EddieThe iconic comedian opens up about how he’s survived 50 years in Hollywood and the pain of losing his fellow comediansMurphy opens up like never before about raising his 10 children and his happy life now with wife Paige Butcher<\/p>\n
There\u2019s pride and self-esteem, and then there\u2019s whatever magical confidence Eddie Murphy<\/a> has. \u201cMy most important blessing is that I love myself,\u201d the legendary comedian and movie star, 64, tells PEOPLE in a rare deep-dive interview for this week’s issue.\n<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always loved myself, always been my biggest fan. That\u2019s at the core of all of the decisions that you make. Some people go through their whole lives and get to the end and say, \u2018I finally love myself.\u2019 I started out that way.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Eddie Murphy.<\/p>\n Kwaku Alston<\/a>\/Foureleven Agency<\/p>\n Next year marks the somewhat reclusive icon\u2019s 50th year in show business, and to celebrate, he\u2019s peeling back the layers in the new Netflix documentary Being Eddie. \u201cIn a business where people come and go, most people don\u2019t get 50 years,\u201d he says.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Murphy first broke through in the \u201980s as a young standout in stand-up and on Saturday Night Live <\/a>before kicking off a slew of early box office successes like 48 HRS., Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop. The ensuing decades brought more hits, including The Nutty Professor, Dreamgirls and Shrek, as well as a few flops, like The Adventures of Pluto Nash.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Eddie Murphy performs at The Comic Strip in New York City in 1984.<\/p>\n Ron Galella\/Ron Galella Collection via Getty\u00a0<\/p>\n In the new doc he credits his residing self-love for helping shield him from many a Hollywood pitfall, namely the deadly drug and alcohol addictions that claimed the lives of so many of his comedic heroes and peers. He also opens up his storybook L.A. mansion for the first time and shares intimate details of his life as husband to wife Paige Butcher and a proud father of 10<\/a>. \u201cBeing Eddie is a great thing,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just a unique life that I\u2019ve had.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Born in Brooklyn, Murphy was a little kid when his father, Charles, then estranged from his mother, Lillian, was murdered by a woman\u00a0he was seeing. The tragedy undoubtedly left a mark on Murphy\u2019s life.\n<\/p>\n Eddie Murphy with his parents Vernon Sr. and Lillian and brother Vernon Jr.<\/p>\n DMI\/The LIFE Picture Collection\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure it affected me a bunch of different ways,\u201d he says of losing the man he\u2019d seen fighting with his mom from his earliest days. \u201cThere was a lot of trauma, and we\u2019re shaped by that stuff.\u201d His mother remarried, to Vernon Lynch Sr., someone Murphy says filled an important void: \u201cBy the grace of God, my mother married an amazing, solid man who put all the right s— in me. That\u2019s crucial. It makes a huge difference.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n By the time he was a teen, Murphy was a master of impersonations and was convinced he\u2019d be a star. Finding success in New York\u2019s stand-up club scene led to his spot on SNL, and not long after, the silver screen came calling. Murphy answered in history-making fashion because, as he puts it, \u201cwhen I\u2019m trying to be funny, I\u2019m funny.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Stevie Wonder and Eddie Murphy on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 1983.<\/p>\n Anthony Barboza\/Getty<\/p>\n Asked what it was like to work with Murphy on the 1988 film Coming to America, his longtime friend Arsenio Hall<\/a> tells PEOPLE, \u201cVery intimidating. Murphy was him. The \u2018new sheriff\u2019! It made me prepare and work harder. Raise my game and try not to get blown off the screen when the director calls action.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Murphy\u2019s also multifaceted; he\u2019s one of the only Hollywood actors to convincingly play multiple characters in the same film, like in Coming to America and The Nutty Professor. In 2007 he received an Oscar nod for his supporting role in Dreamgirls, and he again found critical acclaim with 2019\u2019s Dolemite Is My Name, about real-life comedian Rudy Ray Moore.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n From left: Danny Glover, Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx in 2006’s ‘Dreamgirls’.<\/p>\n \u00a0David James\/Dreamworks\/Kobal\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n But over the years, some projects fell flat, beginning with 1995\u2019s widely panned Vampire in Brooklyn. As he says in the documentary, \u201cNo one sets out to make a bad movie.\u201d The biting criticism he received stung, especially from his comedy alma mater SNL (\u201cLook, children, it\u2019s a falling star,\u201d David Spade<\/a> infamously joked from the show\u2019s Hollywood Minute desk while showing Murphy\u2019s picture). He says it was the reason he didn\u2019t return to the 30 Rock stage for years.\n<\/p>\n The star buried that long-held hatchet in 2019, returning to host the show<\/a> for the first time since 1984 with the help of fellow superstar comedians Dave Chappelle<\/a>, Chris Rock<\/a> and Tracy Morgan<\/a>. Murphy calls it a full-circle moment. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see your impact and the influence that you had on other artists, because I feel a kinship with comedians,\u201d he says.\n<\/p>\n Demond Wilson (left) and Redd Foxx on ‘Sanford and Son’. That kinship is so strong, he notes in the film, that he helped fund the burials of some of his heroes who died while down on their luck. \u201cWhen Redd [Foxx] kicked out, I had to bury Redd,\u201d he reveals \u201cI had to bury Rick [James]<\/a>. I bought Buckwheat [Thomas] a tombstone.\u201d But the deepest loss was that of comedian Charlie Murphy, his older brother<\/a>, who died in 2017 at age 57 after battling leukemia<\/a>. Discussing the pain of that loss is the only time Murphy\u2019s face grows emotional in the new film.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\nEverett<\/p>\n