Eddie Murphy is promoting Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which premieres on Netflix on July 3. I’m a huge fan of the first two BHC movies and it’s amazing to remember that no one had really done what Eddie Murphy did at the time. He basically saved Saturday Night Live and filmed 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop on his summers off. He became a full-fledged movie star AND the most popular comedian in the country before the age of 23. He also spent decades creating a fascinating body of work as an actor and producer and he remains one of the most successful entertainers of all time. Murphy chatted with the New York Times for an in-depth interview on his career, BCH and how he survived the industry and lives peacefully. He basically watches Family Feud, plays the guitar and spends time with his kids most days. Some highlights from this wonderful NYT piece:

He didn’t really understand how groundbreaking he was: “I was 22 when I got to do “Beverly Hills Cop” and 20 years old when I started doing “48 Hrs.” Now I look back at those times, and I trip about how young I was. But back then I kind of took it for granted. One thing had led to another, and I wound up on a movie set. Then when stuff worked and became hit movies, I was like, “OK, that’s what it’s supposed to be.”…I was having these famous people that I grew up watching on television wanting to have a meal with me. After “48 Hrs.” Marlon Brando calls my agent and wants to meet me. Now I look back and go, “Wow, that’s crazy: The greatest actor of all time wants to have dinner with you!” But back then I just thought, Well, that’s the way it is: You make a movie, and Marlon Brando calls.

He’s out of touch: “I’m so out of touch. I ask my wife, who’s this person? She’ll be like, ‘They’re the biggest thing in the world.’ [Whether he can name a Taylor Swift song?] No, I can’t. I’m sorry.”

What he watches on TV: “I’m ashamed to say the stuff I watch now. It’s not hip stuff. Every night at 6 o’clock, before I eat dinner, I watch Steve Harvey and “Family Feud.” I watch “The Masked Singer.” [Laughs.] My wife and I, we watch all of those shows, the singing competitions and that kind of stuff. Last year, I watched all of “The Golden Bachelor.” You know they broke up? What kind of [expletive] is that? I watched that, I was like, “This is so nice, they found love in the second part of their life.” Then I find out these [expletive] broke up three months later!

He was a huge Elvis fan: “Elvis had a huge influence on me: the leather suits; in “Raw,” I come out, I have a scarf. I was rolling like Elvis, too. I didn’t have the Memphis Mafia, but I had my little crew of dudes. And the same way you see me dressed in “Delirious” and in “Raw,” I used to dress like that on the streets. I was totally in my Elvis trip. And when I got older, it was like, oh, my God, Elvis wasn’t cool at all. Elvis was going through some [expletive]. Now, Michael Jackson, that whole red jacket thing in “Thriller”: “Thriller” is after “Delirious” when I owned the red suit. I’m not saying he was influenced, but I had on the red jacket before.

The men he admired came to tragic ends: “Those guys are all cautionary tales for me. I don’t drink. I smoked a joint for the first time when I was 30 years old — the extent of drugs is some weed. I remember I was 19, I went to the Blues Bar. It was me, Belushi and Robin Williams. They start doing coke, and I was like, “No, I’m cool.” I wasn’t taking some moral stance. I just wasn’t interested in it. To not have the desire or the curiosity, I’d say that’s providence. God was looking over me in that moment. When you get famous really young, especially a Black artist, it’s like living in a minefield. Any moment something could happen that can undo everything. It was like, all of this stuff is going on, and I’m totally oblivious. Now, at this age, I can look back and be like, “Wow, I came through a minefield for 35 years.” How do you make it through a minefield for 35, 40 years? Something has to be looking over you.

He doesn’t consider his films flops anymore: “I have more than five good [movies], though. I feel like I have maybe five or six bad ones. You know, “Pluto Nash” might be the only [expletive] movie. I have a couple of movies that are soft, and movies that are just OK. But no flops. I used to call movies flops. There’s no such thing as a flop. Because I’ve been in this business long enough to know that when I got into this business, there was no Black Hollywood, and there was just, you know, a handful of Black people that were working in films. Just to get in a movie is an accomplishment.

Dealing with racism & negativity: “Just think about it: Ronald Reagan was the president, and it was that America. You would do interviews, and you’re like: “I didn’t say that. I don’t talk that way.” They would be writing it in this weird ghetto — I used to have weird [expletive] that would go on. Then I got really popular, and there was this negative backlash that comes with it. It’s like, I was the only one out there. I’m this young, rich, Black one. Everybody wasn’t happy about that in 1983. Even Black folks. You’d get cheap shots from your people.

The David Spade story: “When David Spade said that [expletive] about my career on “S.N.L.,” it was like: “Yo, it’s in-house! I’m one of the family, and you’re [expletive] with me like that?” It hurt my feelings like that, yeah. [Spade made fun of]one movie. “Vampire in Brooklyn.” It came out and had flopped. He showed a picture of me, and he said, “Hey, everybody, catch a falling star.” It was like: Wait, hold on. This is “Saturday Night Live.” I’m the biggest thing that ever came off that show. The show would have been off the air if I didn’t go back on the show, and now you got somebody from the cast making a crack about my career? And I know that he can’t just say that. A joke has to go through these channels. So the producers thought it was OK to say that. And all the people that have been on that show, you’ve never heard nobody make no joke about anybody’s career. Most people that get off that show, they don’t go on and have these amazing careers. It was personal. It was like, “Yo, how could you do that?” My career? Really? A joke about my career? So I thought that was a cheap shot. And it was kind of, I thought — I felt it was racist. [I stayed away from SNL for] thirty years. In the long run, it’s all good. Worked out great. I’m cool with David Spade. Cool with Lorne Michaels. I went back to “S.N.L.” I’m cool with everybody. It’s all love.

[From The NY Times]

He was obviously so close to Richard Pryor and considered Pryor a mentor and friend in many ways, but it cracks me up to hear him talk about how much he loved Elvis. He also says, in this interview, “The ceiling of the whole art form, standup comedy, that’s Richard [Pryor]. And the ceiling for movies, for me, is Chaplin.” I can’t remember who said it, but years ago someone pointed out that people expected Murphy to be the next Richard Pryor but he actually wanted to be the next Jerry Lewis. The story about Jim Belushi and Robin Williams doing coke is crazy but it was a different time. The story about David Spade… that really did hurt him and he’s absolutely right that it was racist and just rude, not just for Spade personally but for the writers and producers who okayed it.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.