How Eddie Murphy Changed Hollywood: The Ups and Downs of the Great Comedian of Our Time

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In April of this year, actor Eddie Murphy turned sixty years old. Perhaps this is the funniest and most sought-after black comedian of the eighties. His career is like a swing, because the actor has had both ups and downs. Having starred in such cult films as "A Trip to America", "Policeman from Beverly Hills", "48 Hours", "Doctor Dolittle" and other equally significant films, he became a real star. In addition to filming films, the actor also excelled in music, having released several solo albums, and also performed in the "Stand Up" style. How did the actor achieve such popularity? Why was he not liked by film critics? And how did he overcome racial discrimination in Hollywood?

The difficult childhood of the future star

Eddie Murphy was born in New York, in the family he was the second child. His older brother Charlie also became an actor. The boys' love for acting and comedy was passed on from their father. Despite the fact that dad worked in the police, he performed at the theater stage at the amateur level, especially he loved comedic roles. But his father died when Eddie was only nine years old.

After that, the boys fell on hard times. There was no money in the family, and even my mother could hardly bear the loss of her husband, having ended up in the hospital on this basis. So the boys had to live with a foster family for about a year. After getting married again, my mother took her sons.

Eddie's talent for comedy showed itself in the elementary grades of school. By the way, thanks to this, he became the most popular in the class. Even teachers noted his talent and subtle humor. And from the age of fifteen, he began performing in various clubs as a stand-up comedian. And he did it quite successfully. His author's jokes hit the audience with a bang.

Meteoric rise

After a while, the comedian began to joke not in clubs, but already on television. For a couple of years, he starred in the hit show Saturday Night Live, with several roles at once. This program was a good start for his career.

At twenty-one, Eddie Murphy made his debut as an actor in the comedy "48 Hours". We can say that literally the day after the premiere, this comedian became famous. The comedies Trading Places, Better Defense, The Golden Child and A Trip to America only reinforced the audience's love for Murphy. He became one of the most popular actors of the eighties. The most overwhelming success of the actor was caused by the film "Policeman from Beverly Hills", in which Eddie Murphy played a detective.

Actor's creative crisis

After a meteoric rise, the career began to decline. Eddie Murphy even tried on the role of director, making the film "Harlem Nights." Despite the fairly good box office receipts, the experts subjected this tape to harsh criticism, having awarded the Golden Raspberry anti-award in the nomination for the worst scenario.

The film "The Nutty Professor" helped the actor return a little to its former glory. Eddie Murphy's highlight was his versatility. In many films he played several characters at once, and the viewer did not always guess about this, since the actor played characters completely different in appearance and character.

The actor also delighted his fans with such films as "The Haunted Mansion", "How to Steal a Skyscraper", "A Thousand Words". And in the 2000s, he switched a little to family projects, starring in the film "Dad on Duty", as well as voicing the beloved donkey in the cult cartoon "Shrek".

Despite all this, the actor constantly succumbed to criticism, collecting failures and nominations in "Golden Raspberry" with unenviable regularity. As a result, he even took the anti-award "Worst Actor of the Decade", ahead of his competitors Adam Sandler and Sylvester Stallone in this infamous award for actors. But the worst thing for Eddie was the failure of his fantastic blockbuster "The Adventures of Pluto Nash", which grossed only seven million at the box office against a hundred million dollars of his original budget.

Eddie Murphy's failures are blamed by critics for his careless choice of projects. For example, the film "Norbit's Tricks", where Murphy played a heavyweight woman, still protects indiscriminate actors who agree to act in everything without brute force.

Although the actor is more inherent in the comedy genre, he tried his hand at an atypical drama Dream Girl. The change of image brought Eddie Murphy the only Oscar nomination in his film career, but he could not win it. Having not received the award, the actor left the hall in frustrated feelings, thereby provoking the indignation of film academics.

There was also an unpleasant moment with this award, which significantly shook an already fragile career. Eddie Murphy was once invited to host the Oscar, but his friend, who was supposed to direct the event, was suspended due to homophobic comments. And the actor, out of solidarity, left after his friend, which again caused a wave of dissatisfaction among film academics, who took this as disrespect for himself.

The whole series of unsuccessful pictures and troubles with awards prompted the actor to retire. And at the age of almost fifty years, he lay low. For several years, Murphy did not appear on the screens, but this time he was not wasted. Firstly, he devoted time to his family, and he is not small. The actor is a father of many children, he has ten children from five different women. And secondly, he used his energy to write scripts.

During his "sabbatical" he wrote a parody of the famous painting "12 Years of Slavery". He also worked on a cartoon for adults about animals that could talk.

In an interview, Murphy admitted that his break was prolonged, but he pulled himself together and returned to the cinema. “I've made bad films. And I thought, “This is not funny. They give me the Golden Raspberry. Yes, they gave me the Golden Raspberry as the worst actor in the world! Maybe it's time to take a break. I was going to take a break for just a year. Then suddenly six years passed, and I am sitting on the couch, and I could continue to sit on it, but I do not want to be remembered for those works,”said Eddie Murphy.

How Eddie Murphy changed Hollywood

Eddie Murphy was known for more than just a comedian. He began to build his career with scandals, curses and vulgar jokes. This, of course, was not forbidden for comedians, but it was not particularly welcomed either. Friends of the actor are sure that critics ruined Murphy's career. A new era of more moral comedy began, which contradicted the way Eddie started.

Perhaps this is connected with the fact that the actor took as many as four "Golden Raspberries", as well as, in addition, six more nominations for this anti-award. But Eddie Murphy is a good enough actor, and the comedy genre is eternal. Why was he so disliked by critics? Perhaps because he became the first black actor to be so popular.

Yes, before him there were a couple of actors with the same race, namely: Sidney Poitier, who achieved success in serious cinema, and Richard Pryor in comedies that were different from the Murphy films, because they were pure and modest. But Eddie Murphy skidded, let's say, where no one had ever been. He starred in comedies, where there were no frames either in jokes or in images. He was even the first black man to star in an action movie. Eddie Murphy proved that not only whites can play anything in Hollywood. With his character and tenacity, he lit the way to Hollywood for such actors as Samuel L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Jamie Foxx.

This important contribution to the destruction of stereotypes in Hollywood, one might say, cost the actor fame. He finally and irrevocably eliminated racial divisions. It is noteworthy that he achieved all this only by his own example, and not by various public statements or actions of civil disobedience, as many are trying to do.

Triumphant return

After Murphy's return, several pictures have already appeared on the screens. The actor played the main character in the drama "Mr. Church". This film received many negative reviews from critics, but this was mainly related to the plot and filming, but Murphy's acting was praised, which is a rarity for this actor.

But most of all, people were waiting for the sequel to the popular and beloved film "A Trip to America". The actor was very worried about the quality of this film, because a huge number of people grew up on it. Eddie Murphy was afraid to let the fans of this franchise down, ruining her reputation and impression. According to the actor, he tried to restore the atmosphere of the first picture, and tried to make it no worse than the previous one.

Trip to America 2 came out thirty-three years after the first film. As in the first picture, the main roles were played by Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall. The return with the film "A Trip to America 2" was necessary for the actor to prove that he is still capable of joking, and he has something to show the viewer. Initially, they wanted to launch the premiere of the film in cinemas, but due to the pandemic, the marketing rights were sold to Amazon. So, since the spring of this year, viewers can appreciate this film on the Internet.

It was still not possible to surpass the first picture, but the fans are still immensely happy with the return of their idol.

“I've made bad films. And I thought, “This is not funny. They give me the Golden Raspberry. Yes, they gave me the Golden Raspberry as the worst actor in the world! Maybe it's time to take a break. " I was going to take a break for just a year. Then suddenly six years passed, and I am sitting on the sofa, and I could have continued to sit on it, but I do not want to be remembered for those works"