Hindsight really is 20/20.
Eddie Murphy is the latest Hollywood star to admit passing on a role that still stings years later. In a chat with Speedy Morman on 360 with Speedy, Murphy revealed he chose Holy Man over playing Detective James Carter in Rush Hour — a part that ultimately went to Chris Tucker.
“They came to me, and they was like, it was two scripts,” Murphy recalled. “It was like, ‘It’s Rush Hour, and it’s going to be [an] action comedy, and you’re gonna be [with] Jackie Chan. And it’s action, summertime, running, and all this physical stuff.’”
“And this other one was, ‘You in a robe in Miami.’ I was like, hey, hey, hey,” he joked, referring to his Holy Man role. “It was a no-brainer! And we went to Miami, and made a horrendous film.”
The 64-year-old quickly softened the “horrendous” jab, but with the 1998 film holding a 12% Rotten Tomatoes rating, he might have had a point.
Murphy also admitted he turned down the role of Hoke Colburn in Driving Miss Daisy, which later earned Morgan Freeman an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Although the role was initially written for him, Murphy said he was firm in his decision, telling producers he “wasn’t doing no shit like that.”
Murphy also revealed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that he passed on Ghostbusters to star in Beverly Hills Cop, and turned down Who Framed Roger Rabbit because he wasn’t sold on the concept of mixing animation with live-action.
