Interview: Eddie Murphy on Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, R-ratings and more!

Last Updated on June 27, 2024

I’ve been very lucky to have worked for JoBlo as long as I have because, over the years, I’ve been able to interview many people I admire. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Anne Hathaway, Denzel Washington, Jessica Chastain, Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, and many more. I’ve been able to cross more than a few names off my all-time bucket list (with Sylvester Stallone being a big one), but one guy I never thought I’d get the chance to talk to is Eddie Murphy.

Indeed, as a guy who grew up in the eighties and nineties, Murphy has always been an all-timer for me. I was born in ’81, so Murphy has pretty much been a star the entire time I’ve been alive. I grew up on a diet of his films, with Beverly Hills Cop and its first sequel always being particular favourites of mine. When Netflix announced they were making Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, I never in a million years imagined I’d get to cover the press junket in Los Angeles (in Beverly Hills) for the site and speak to Murphy himself. But it happened, and it was a HUGE moment for me.

While the interview was short, Murphy was hysterical as always, with him explaining how Axel Foley has evolved over the years and how he never knew the franchise would become when it did when he signed on to do the first one. He’s also teased his upcoming action flick with Pete Davidson, The Pickup, but the best part of the interview is when he asks me how old I was when I saw Beverly Hills Cop for the first time. I told him I was about seven (true), and he got a HUGE kick out of that, especially when he realized the movie had strippers and nudity in it, and how that probably blew my seven-year-old mind. It’s definitely a moment I’ll treasure!

Check back in a few days for more stuff from Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, including our review and interviews with Joseph Gordon Levitt, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Kevin Bacon, Jerry Bruckheimer and director Mark Molloy!