The B-Side Ep. 182 – Eddie Murphy (with Nicholas Gray and Alvin Keith)

Welcome to The B-Side! Here we talk about movie stars! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.  Today we talk about one of the most successful performers of all time: Eddie Murphy! Our B-Sides include: Metro, Holy Man, Life, and I Spy. Our guests today are filmmaker and returning guest Nicholas Gray and incredible actor Alvin Keith.  We discuss Eddie’s stratospheric rise, the perceived failure of the underrated Harlem Nights, and his underwhelming ‘90s output. In 1987-1988, Eddie’s stand-up special Raw was one of the most financially successful theatrical releases of the calendar year. There’s the tonal strangeness of Metro, the fact that Eddie is not the lead of Holy Man, the subtle brilliance of Life, and the tired, cynical result that is I Spy.  We talk about how Eddie only ever auditioned for Saturday Night Live as an actor, as well as his famous moment at the Academy Awards in 1988 in which he called out the lack of Black representation. There’s this great quote from Carmen Ejogo about working with Eddie on Metro: “He was utterly charming but... did he tell me this? He gets told, "There's this script, it's a bit shitty, are you interested?" "No, not really." "Well, you know, we're going to give you $30 million to do it." "Yeah, all right then." And that's where he's at. He's not doing it to be the next Poitier. It is what it is for him, and that's what he's like on set. He's just showing up and getting paid, whereas I was like, ‘What's the motivation here?’” We debate Eddie’s inherent softness (and also his edge) and how it works to his advantage, him turning down Rush Hour in favor of Holy Man, and his music career!