When you've been working in the entertainment industry for decades, chances are pretty good that you've made a few bad movies, and that's definitely true of Eddie Murphy. When the comedian got his start, he found huge success with R-rated comedies such as Trading Places, 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, and more, but by the mid-90s, Murphy had jumped onboard the family-friendly bandwagon with The Nutty Professor, Doctor Dolittle, and Shrek. Although those films were just as successful as his older comedies, they led to a string of misfires such as The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Norbit, Meet Dave, Imagine That, and A Thousand Words which ultimately led to Murphy quitting acting for an extended period.
Eddie Murphy wound up receiving nine Razzie nominations ("winning" three) over the years, and while speaking on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, Murphy said, "I was making shitty movies. I was like, 'This shit ain’t fun. They’re giving me Razzies…Motherfuckers gave me the 'worst actor ever' Razzie. [So I thought], 'Maybe it’s time to take a break.'" During the 2010 Razzie Award ceremony, Eddie Murphy actually received the award for Worst Actor of the Decade, which seems a little harsh, but Murphy decided it was time to take a break.
I was only gonna take a break for a year, then all of a sudden six years go by, and I’m sitting on the couch, and I could sit on the couch and not get off it, but I don’t want to the last bunch of shit they see me do [to be] bullshit. The plan was to go do ‘Dolemite,’ ‘Saturday Night Live,’ ‘Coming 2 America,’ and then do stand-up and see how I felt afterwards. At least then they’ll know I’m [still] funny.
Eddie Murphy did indeed make his grand return in Dolemite Is My Name, and the Razzie Awards even recognized their mistake and awarded him the Razzie Redeemer Award last year. Murphy can currently be seen starring in Coming 2 America on Amazon Prime, and you can check out a review of the film from our own Chris Bumbray right here.