The Michigan Daily - Friday, December 11, 1992- Page 9
Eddie Murphy goes cerebral
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by Aaron Hamburger
When you think Eddie Murphy,
the next person to come to mind
probably isn't Woody Allen. Yet
when asked who his favorite come-
dian was, Murphy immediately cited
"Radio Days" and "Broadway
Danny Rose" as his two favorite
Woody movies.
Murphy likes "Stardust Memo-
ries" as well, but for more personal
reasons. "You know what's really
interesting about that movie? People
watch that movie and people look at
it and go, 'Oh people aren't like that.
No one could be like that. That's too
inside.' But anybody in show
business will tell you that that movie
is so realistic, so real.
"When I saw the movie I freaked
out. The same shit, 'Oh he's not
funny anymore. Oh he's not doing it,
oh he's trying to do ...' The whole
shit where people are trying to figure
out what it was that made you an
artist, and getting all up in your
business and stuff. And I was going
through that exact same thing."
The past few years have not been
the kindest to Murphy, who, once
the biggest star in Hollywood, has
seen his career falter somewhat with
the successive failures of his direc-
toral debut, "Harlem Nights," and
"Another 48 Hours." Murphy takes
full blame for those films.
"If you look at 'Harlem Nights,'
it was the first movie I made that
wasn't a critical success and just
barely made its money. That movie
and 'Another 48 hours' was trying to
do something other than the artist
was trying ... to write, direct, star
and act all at the same time. I was a
performer and if I could do all those
different things I never did them at
the same time. I never felt like doing
them at the same time and I was do-
ing them just because other artists
was doing them, not because I was
inspired to do it. And the result was
a half-ass movie, a half-ass perfor-
mance on my part."
Explaining his long absence from
the movies, Murphy said, "I did that
two years ago. I pulled away and I
didn't come back until I found some-
thing I was passionate about."
Apparently, Murphy was quite
taken with Marty Kaplan's script for
"The Distinguished Gentleman."
"Comedically it was the first time
there was a backdrop," he com-
mented. "There was a story and
characters and stuff and there was
something intelligent going on. It
wasn't just me coming in a room and
talking really fast and everybody
going who was that Negro?"
"You know, when I did
'Boomerang' I was trying to do
something with a little more heart
and a little more intelligent than the
things I had done in the past. And
with ('Gentleman'), of all the things
I've read, it was the first time that I
was able to do something that was
cerebral."
Addressing his reputation for be-
ing an promiscuous egotist as a
young man, Murphy said, "Every-
body goes through that. Pick any 23-
year-old, 24-year-old. Start giving
him a whole lot of money, a purple
leather suit and he's going to make a
fool of himself. My sex life has been
so, so normal. You go up in the
public eye, everything is blown out
of proportion. I've always been a
prude."
Murphy then added, (in regard to
resisting the temptations of women
going to any lengths to sleep with
him, including hiding out in laundry
baskets), "And anybody that comes
out of a laundry basket and says I
want to fuck you, you usually say,
hey, get out of here!"
Perhaps, worried about his repu-
tation as one who does not exactly
show the greatest concern for femi-
nism, Murphy seemed careful not to
hurt any feelings with statements
like, "I can't change a diaper. Sorry,
I know a lot of ladies hear that and
think it's insensitive, but it's you
know when you grab the diaper and
you fell all that hot through the
pamper, hot clump of ... it makes
my throat close up like I can't
breathe. It really like makes me
retch. Shit."
However, Murphy does not
worry about offending George Bush
or Bill Clinton. Murphy said, "I
didn't vote this year. It's like asking
someone to choose between Burger
King and McDonald's. I just feel
like either way you're getting the
same shit."
Speaking of the same old shit,
Murphy's next film is "Beverly Hills
Cop 3."
When asked about previous
comments he had made about actors
being whores and that "they" didn't
have enough money to write the
check to get him to do another
"Beverly Hills Cop" movie, Murphy
replied, "Oh man those are things
you say."
On a more serious note, Murphy
continued, "Let me tell you some-
thing, all actors go through a period
where it's really cool to be depressed
all the time. And then you say wait a
minute, actors, 95% unemployed,
and you get to do this for a living.
You get to put on a suit and play
cowboys and act for a living."
Murphy marveled, "That's a hell of
a thing."
That Distinguished Gentleman Eddie Murphy flashes his trademark grin.
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