Eddie Murphy Was Once Frustrated He Wasn’t Offered a Role in the Film ‘Ghost’
Eddie Murphy has a long list of memorable and iconic films to his name. But if he had it his way, he might have added the classic supernatural romance Ghost to his filmography.
Eddie Murphy once said he didn’t want to do the same thing all the time in movies
Murphy has made it a point to star in a wide variety of movies over the years. He’s even branched out to have a successful run as a dramatic actor with films like Dreamgirls and Mr. Church. It was the type of range the actor would strive for earlier in his career.
“I could have done a bunch of movies where I stayed as the Axel Foley or Reggie Hammond persona. But I didn’t want to be doing the same thing all the time. Every now and then, you crash and burn, but that’s part of it,” Murphy said in a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone.
Because of his philosophy about Hollywood, Murphy wasn’t afraid to take risks when it came to film roles. Which made him more willing to take chances on movies.
“If you have a flop movie, so what? And if you have a hit movie, it’s ‘so what,’ too, it’s on to the next movie. If I do something I die in it, at least I took a chance,” he said. “There’s this little box that African-American actors have to work in, in the first place, and I was able to rise above that box.”
Eddie Murphy didn’t like the fact that he wasn’t offered the movie ‘Ghost’
Although he was willing to take chances, Murphy has also regretted turning down his fair share of movies over the years. In a resurfaced interview with Allison Samuels from Newsweek, the comedian reflected on some of the classic features he missed out on. Which included Ghostbusters. At the same time, he felt he might have focused on doing too many Beverly Hills Cop stories.
“There was no reason to do the third and fourth ones,” Murphy said. “I could tell they were bad—I read the script. But when you never had money—you always want more, and you’re worried you’re going to run out.”
But of all the films he missed out on, Ghost was a feature that was an especially sore spot for the actor. Ghost was a film that came out in 1990 starring Demi Moore. It was about a widow being visited and comforted by the spirit of her dead partner played by Patrick Swayze. The project was both a commercial and financial success, earning a couple of Oscar nominations and even winning a few.
The film was backed by the studio Paramount Pictures. Since Murphy felt he was the biggest star out of the studio back then, he believed he should’ve been considered for the film. He was more than disappointed that he wasn’t.
“I deserved for them to come to me first,” Murphy said. “That’s how you treat your biggest star. You give him the opportunity to say he’s not interested. I would have been interested in doing Ghost.”
Eddie Murphy stopped doing movies for years after starring in terrible films
Murphy eventually didn’t enjoy the turn that his career took. He found himself doing a string of unsatisfying projects, which later caused him to make a big decision regarding his career.
“I was like, ‘Let me take a break from movies,'” he said on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast. “Because I was making these s***ty movies, and it was like, ‘This s*** ain’t fun.’ They giving me Razzies; I think these motherf***ers gave me the Worst Actor Ever Razzie or some s***. It’s like, ‘Maybe it’s time to take a break?'”
But he soon clarified that the break lasted much longer than he originally intended it to.
“I was only going to take a break for a year and then all of a sudden six years go by, and I’m sitting on the couch and, ‘You know, I could sit on this couch and not get off it, but I don’t wanna leave it, the last bunch of s*** [audiences] seen me do was bulls***.’ So, I was like, ‘Let me get off the couch and do some stuff and remind ’em that I’m funny and if I wanna return to the couch, I could do that.'”
