“I was just interested,” said Eddie Murphy.
Eddie Murphy has been in the movie business since the early 1980s. Reason enough to look back at his career and see what really good decisions he made. Like, for example, he preferred to avoid hard drugs – even if he was offered them by respected fellow actors such as Robin Williams and John Belushi…
“I did not take a moral position”
In an interview with the New York Times, Murphy spoke in detail about the beginning of his film career. In the interview, the 63-year-old said, among other things, that he was often under a lot of pressure. Looking back, he’s glad he didn’t use drugs during this phase. He specifically shared a moment where he had to be very tough: At the age of 19, Robin Williams and John Belushi offered him cocaine. The actors were in a blues bar together and tried to encourage Murphy to take drugs, but he refused:
“They started making coke and I said, ‘No, it’s good.’ I didn’t take a moral stand. It was probably because of the energy that God was watching me at that time.”
He did not reveal in the interview the circumstances surrounding the encounter or how the two coke smoking mimes responded to Eddie Murphy’s denial.
“Something can happen at any moment that could ruin everything.”
What he did say was his views on “living in a minefield,” describing the movie business to young celebrities. “Something can happen at any time that could ruin everything,” Murphy said. In his opinion, this makes it easy to deal with drugs.
Although he was a big fan of Elvis Presley as a young adult, he now believes that, like Michael Jackson and Prince, he represents “cool examples” of success.
He concluded about himself: “I don’t drink. I wore a bra for the first time when I was 30 years old.”
Eddie Murhy and Axel Foley
40 years after the release of the first installment of “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” Eddie Murphy returns to his iconic role as Axel Foley to investigate corruption within the Beverly Hills police force. The sequel to the crime comedy will be available on Netflix from July 3.