Eddie Murphy stood 10 toes down on his decision to make his 2007 comedy “Norbit” after he earned his first Oscar nomination for “Dreamgirls.”
The conversation came about while Murphy was appearing on Complex’s interview series “360 With Speedy Morman” on Thursday. Host Speedy Morman asked Murphy what films would make up his Mount Rushmore of best films. After struggling a bit to make a final decision, he shared that it would be easier to name his “worst” projects.
After listing “Pluto Nash” and “Holy Man,” Morman chimed in to mention that some would name “Norbit” as one of Murphy’s worst projects. But Murphy rejected the idea.
“I love ‘Norbit,’” Murphy shared. “‘Norbit’ came out right after I got that Oscar nomination. There were articles like, ‘How can he get an Oscar, he did this?’ They’re two different movies. I wrote ‘Norbit’ with my brother, Charlie [Murphy], and we think ‘Norbit’ is funny. Here’s the thing with ‘Norbit,’ it came out, it got voted for Razzies for Worst Actor of the Decade, Worst Actor’ and Worst Actress. They gave me a Razzy for Worst Actress, Worst Actor and Worst Actor of the Decade. And I was like, ‘Come on now, s—t ain’t that bad.’”
Murphy earned an Oscar nomination for his role as Jimmy “Thunder” Early in “Dreamgirls,” which hit theaters in December 2006. Just a few months later in February 2007, “Norbit” landed at the box office. And it did in fact gain the title for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actor and Worst Supporting Actress at the 28th Golden Raspberry Awards.
Nevertheless, Murphy says: “I like ‘Norbit.’ To this day, I like ‘Norbit.’ There’s stuff in ‘Norbit’ that makes me laugh.”
Watch the interview below:
As far as his best movies, “Coming to America,” “Shrek,” “Dreamgirls,” “48 Hours” and “Nutty Professor” all made the cut, with the latter being the film Murphy feels is an encapsulation of his talent as an actor and comedian overall.
Pivoting back to his worst pictures and after confirming that he was the actor who originally was up for Chris Tucker’s role in “Rush Hour,” Murphy shared that “Holy Man,” was film he chose to do over the now-hit franchise.
“They came to me, it was two scripts,” Murphy explained. “It was ‘Rush Hour,’ it’s going to be action-comedy and you gon’ be with Jackie Chan, and it’s action it’s summertime, running, all this physical stuff. This other was ‘you in a robe in Miami’ — 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’t a great picture.”
