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Eddie Murphy jokes about acting hiatus: 'They’re giving me Razzies'

Eddie Murphy jokes about why he took a break from acting: 'They’re giving me Razzies'

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 3/8/21

Eddie Murphy is back like it's 1988 with Coming 2 America hitting Amazon Prime Video last Friday, so it's easy to forget that the comedy icon was on an acting hiatus not too long ago.

Monday, Murphy's episode of the Marc Maron Podcast was released, and with it, the reasoning behind his decision to take a break from acting (68:30-minute mark).

"I had stopped making movies in 2011—I was like, 'Let me take a break from movies,'" Murphy said. "I was making these s—y movies. This s—t ain't fun. They're giving me Razzies. I think them m—f—rs gave me the Worst Actor Ever Razzie. It was like, 'Maybe it's time to take a break.'"

The 59-year-old continued: "I was only gonna take a break for a year, then all of the sudden, six years go by, and I'm sitting on the couch, and I'm like, 'Hey, you know, I kind of could sit on this couch and not get off it, but I don't leave it [with] the last bunch of s—t they've seen me do was bulls—t,' so it was like, 'Let me get off the couch and remind them that I'm funny.'"

First off all, Murphy's memory served him well. The Golden Raspberry Awards, infamously known as the Razzies and annually given to the "worst cinematic under-achievers" recognized him as the Worst Actor of the Decade in 2010.

He redeemed himself, literally, as he earned the Razzie Redeemer Award for his performance as Rudy Ray Moore in 2019 Netflix drama Dolemite Is My Name.

"The plan was to go do Dolemite, Saturday Night Live, do Coming 2 America and then do stand-up, and then see how I felt afterwards," he added. "But I was like, 'Then at least they'll know I'm funny.' Otherwise, if you're still on the couch, they don't know you're sitting on the couch. They just like, 'Yeah, he fell off. He ain't funny no more.'"

In December 2019, Murphy did return to Saturday Night Live 35 years removed from hotter-than-hot run on the show in the early 1980s:

And, as previously hinted at, Coming 2 America finally came together after years of speculation and uncertainty. However, Murphy's plan to hit the road were halted by the COVID-19 pandemic. He told Maron that he still wants to see that plan through and perform stand-up comedy again for the first time since he was 28 years old. "I want to bookend it," he said. "What will it be like? I was a baby when I did it before. When I get some structure to my little thoughts and go and get on stage and do it again, I want to see what it's gonna be like. ... Then, if I wanna go sit on the couch, cool."

In the meantime, Coming 2 America will take viewers back to the Murphy heyday. The sequel finds much of the original cast together again as Prince Akeem (Murphy) and Semmi (Arsenio Hall) must return to Queens, New York, to find an heir that Akeem unknowingly fathered all those years ago.

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