{"id":226443,"date":"2026-01-04T05:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/226443\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T05:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:54:07","slug":"eddie-murphy-left-2007-oscars-after-losing-best-supporting-actor-because-he-didnt-want-to-be-the-sympathy-guy-all-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/226443\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Murphy Left 2007 Oscars After Losing Best Supporting Actor Because He Didn\u2019t Want to Be \u2018The Sympathy Guy All Night\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Murphy famously left the 2007 Academy Awards after he lost the best supporting actor award for his role as James \u201cThunder\u201d Early in \u201cDreamgirls.\u201d However, the premature exit wasn\u2019t out of spite. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly<\/a>, the \u201cTrading Places\u201d star said it was because several of his fellow attendees felt bad for him, and he didn\u2019t want to be \u201cthe sympathy guy all night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened was I was at the Oscars, I had lost, and then people kept coming over to me and kept [patting] me on the shoulder,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cClint Eastwood came and rubbed my shoulder. And I was like, \u2018Oh, no, no, I\u2019m not gonna be this guy all night. Let\u2019s just leave.\u2019 I didn\u2019t storm out. I was like, \u2018I\u2019m not gonna be the sympathy guy all night.’\u201d<\/p>\n

More from Variety<\/p>\n

Other best supporting actor nominees that year included Mark Wahlberg for \u201cThe Departed,\u201d Alan Arkin for \u201cLittle Miss Sunshine,\u201d Jackie Earle Haley for \u201cLittle Children\u201d and Djimon Hounsou for \u201cBlood Diamond.\u201d Arkin walked away with the win.<\/p>\n

Murphy recalled seeing an early screening of \u201cLittle Miss Sunshine.\u201d He said he was extremely impressed with Arkin\u2019s performance and predicted his Oscar win.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeff Katzenberg invited me over to see \u2018Little Miss Sunshine\u2019 six months before it came out in the theaters, and I literally watched the movie and I watched Alan \u2014 and I hadn\u2019t been nominated or anything yet \u2014 and I watched the movie and I turned to Jeff afterwards and I said, \u2018Now that performance right there is one of those performances that will steal somebody\u2019s Oscar.\u2019 I said those exact words,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI was like, \u2018He could steal somebody\u2019s Oscar,\u2019 then he stole mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added with a laugh, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t feel like he stole mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDreamgirls\u201d was nominated in eight categories at the 2007 Academy Awards. It won for best achievement and sound mixing, and best supporting actress for Jennifer Hudson.<\/p>\n

Best of Variety<\/p>\n

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Murphy famously left the 2007 Academy Awards after he lost the best supporting actor award for his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[116344,116345,116346,321,11190,78607,93,61,60,116348,116347],"class_list":{"0":"post-226443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-2007-academy-awards","9":"tag-alan-arkin","10":"tag-best-supporting-actor","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-clint-eastwood","13":"tag-eddie-murphy","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-jackie-earle-haley","18":"tag-jeff-katzenberg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}