{"id":73016,"date":"2025-08-10T19:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T19:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/73016\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T19:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T19:50:07","slug":"eddie-murphy-turned-down-rush-hour-to-go-to-miami-and-make-horrendous-holy-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/73016\/","title":{"rendered":"Eddie Murphy Turned Down \u2018Rush Hour\u2019 To Go To Miami and Make \u2018Horrendous\u2019 \u2018Holy Man\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Murphy is an Academy Award-nominated actor \u2014\u00a0but, to him, that doesn\u2019t mean that you only have to make prestige pictures. Firmly established as one of Hollywood\u2019s most bankable stars, Murphy \u2014\u00a0who just premiered \u201cThe Pickup\u201d<\/a> on Amazon Prime \u2014 has always made exactly the kind of movie he wants to make in the moment. Hence why he followed up 2006\u2019s \u201cDreamgirls\u201d \u2014\u00a0which netted not just an Oscar nod<\/a> for Best Supporting Actor, but five other nominations and two wins \u2014\u00a0with the widely panned \u201cNorbit\u201d<\/a> in 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love \u2018Norbit,’\u201d Murphy said on Complex\u2019s interview series \u201c360 With Speedy Morman\u201d (via The Wrap<\/a>). \u201cThere were articles like, \u2018How can he get an Oscar, he did this?\u2019 They\u2019re two different movies. I wrote \u2018Norbit\u2019 with my brother, Charlie [Murphy], and we think \u2018Norbit\u2019 is funny. Here\u2019s the thing with \u2018Norbit\u2019: It came out, it got voted for Razzies for Worst Actor of the Decade, Worst Actor, and Worst Actress. They gave me a Razzie for Worst Actress, Worst Actor, and Worst Actor of the Decade. And I was like, \u2018Come on now, shit ain\u2019t that bad.’\u201d<\/p>\n

More from IndieWire<\/p>\n

In the movie, Murphy not only played the titular Norbit, he also donned drag to portray the character\u2019s wife, Rasputia. Murphy has rarely given much heed to what critics think, though he isn\u2019t afraid to admit when he feels he\u2019s made a genuine stinker \u2014\u00a0not that he harbors any regrets about the movies that passed him by. In fact, he turned down one of the \u201990s biggest hit comedies (or one of the biggest ones Murphy wasn\u2019t already in).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came to me, it was two scripts,\u201d Murphy explained. \u201cIt was \u2018Rush Hour,\u2019 it\u2019s going to be action-comedy and you\u2019re going to be with Jackie Chan, and it\u2019s action, it\u2019s summertime, running, all this physical stuff. This other [offer] was, \u2018You in a robe in Miami\u2019 \u2014 it was a no-brainer. We went to Miami and made a horrendous film, but it was easy. I have to stop saying horrendous. The movie was soft, it wasn\u2019t a great picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

1998\u2019s \u201cHoly Man\u201d was indeed one of the few Murphy movies to lose money, in addition to savage critical reviews. One other major project Murphy passed on was \u201cMalcolm X.\u201d<\/a> Interestingly, it was a historic Oscar-winner who told Murphy to sit that film out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were talking about doing \u2018Malcolm X,’\u201d Murphy said in the Apple TV+ documentary \u201cNumber One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood.\u201d \u201cNorman Jewison was putting it together. They were going to use \u2018The Autobiography of Malcolm X\u2019 by Alex Haley, and they approached me about playing Alex Haley. Around that same time, I bumped into Sidney Poitier at something, and I asked him, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m thinking about playing Alex Haley!\u2019 And Sidney Poitier said, \u2018You are not Denzel [Washington], and you are not Morgan [Freeman]. You are a breath of fresh air, and don\u2019t fuck with that!\u2019 [\u2026] I didn\u2019t know if it was an insult or a compliment. I was like, \u2018What?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Haley ended up not being a character in 1992\u2019s \u201cMalcolm X,\u201d which ended up directed instead by Spike Lee and starring Washington, who earned an Oscar nomination for his work.<\/p>\n

Watch Murphy\u2019s full \u201c360 With Speedy Morman\u201d interview below.<\/p>\n

Best of IndieWire<\/p>\n

Sign up for Indiewire’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 is an Academy Award-nominated actor \u2014\u00a0but, to him, that doesn\u2019t mean that you only have to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[52236,35732,88,206,52235,51464],"class_list":{"0":"post-73016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-best-supporting-actor","9":"tag-eddie-murphy","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-speedy-morman","13":"tag-worst-actress"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}