Eddie Murphy has revealed the three movies he regrets turning down throughout his career, notably mentioning that they all wound up becoming Hollywood blockbusters.
The first was Ivan Reitman’s 1984 film “Ghostbusters,” which ended up starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver. The second was the duo cop comedy “Rush Hour,” which starred Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker and also went on to become a hit film franchise.
“‘Ghostbusters,’ I was supposed to do ‘Ghostbusters,’ didn’t do that, and ‘Rush Hour,” Murphy said in a recent interview with AP Entertainment. “Oh, and ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit.’ Those are my big three ‘Wish-I-would-have-done’ movies … They were huge, giant hits.”
The “Being Eddie” subject went on to explain that the “Ghostbusters” fumble ended up working out because he got tapped to do his beloved cop comedy-action flick “Beverly Hills Cop.”
“With ‘Ghostbusters, I did ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ instead. It was do this or that, so it worked out cool,” he said. But for “Roger Rabbit,” the title was a turn-off: “Just sounded ridiculous to me, and I passed on it. And afterwards, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s f—king amazing.’”
Murphy sat down with the AP to promote his Netflix documentary “Being Eddie,” which spotlights the comedian’s career in Hollywood. While he may not have had the chance to star in the films he mentioned, his resume is packed with cinematic successes, including the “Nutty Professor” and “Shrek” film franchises, “Dr. Dolittle,” “Life” and many more. Not to mention Murphy’s first claim to fame is his comedy background and his legendary standup specials, like “Raw.”
