Comedic legend Eddie Murphy shares some of the early career advice he received in the new Apple TV+ documentary about Black Hollywood.
Eddie Murphy is a legend in comedy circles and in Hollywood, having delivered several iconic performances on the stage and on the big screen. That wasn’t always the case, though. While Murphy’s star power was obvious, there was a time when he was new on the acting scene, and the elder statesmen in the business provided him with some interesting nuggets of advice that he remembers vividly to this day. Did any of that advice change the trajectory of his career? One may never know, but the 63-year-old star is ready to share some of those conversations.
According to People, in the upcoming Apple TV+ two-part series, “Number One on the Call Sheet,” Murphy sat down and shared some of the advice he received while he was a young, up-and-coming comic and actor in Hollywood. “Number One on the Call Sheet” is a documentary about the experiences of Black actors in Hollywood, and Murphy has a lot to share.
In recounting a conversation with Sidney Poitier, he remembers being advised to stick to comedy, something that has fared Murphy very well throughout his career.
“Early on, Sidney said — I don’t know if it was an insult or a compliment, or something. …They were talking about doing Malcolm X. Norman Jewison was putting it together, and they were gonna use ‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’ by Alex Haley. And they approached me about playing Alex Haley,” he shared. As a point of note, in 1992, Spike Lee co-wrote and directed “Malcolm X,” starring Denzel Washington and based on Haley’s best-selling “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” — no person plays Haley in Lee’s film.
Murphy continued, “And some-kind-of-where around that same time, I bumped into Sidney Poitier at something. And I asked him, ‘Yeah, I’m thinking about playing Alex Haley.’ And Sidney Poitier said, uh, ‘You are not Denzel, and you are not Morgan. You are a breath of fresh air. And don’t f— with that.’ And I was like, ‘What?’”
It would seem that Murphy took Poitier’s advice, but again, in the version of the film eventually released by Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and a Mule Production company, there is no representation of Haley in the film.
Murphy also shared some interesting advice he received from James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul.” In 2006, Murphy played James “Thunder” Early in the film “Dreamgirls” — he was nominated for an Oscar for his performance — in a role loosely based on Brown. Brown thought that Murphy could tone down the language.
“James Brown told me, he asked me, he told me I should stop cursing. He said, ‘You want to be in this business for a long time, you should stop that cursing,’” Murphy recalled.
Brown also provided some financial advice for Murphy, though Murphy did not disclose if he used it.
“You think you got a million dollars?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I do.’ And he said, ‘You ain’t got no million dollars.’ He said, ‘If you do got a million dollars, you take it and bury it in the woods,’” he remembered.
“And I said, ‘Why bury my money in the woods?’ He said, ‘The government will take it from you. So bury it.’ And I said, ‘But can’t the government take your land?’ And he said, ‘But they won’t know where the money is.’ That’s a true story. That’s the kind of advice I used to get.”
Murphy pointed out that he also received advice from the likes of Marlon Brando and Larry Holmes. The comedy and film legend took it all in stride, acknowledging that he wasn’t sure if the folks who came before him had any idea what kind of advice to really give him to succeed.
Along with Murphy, other participants in the two-part series include Washington, Angela Bassett, Whoopi Goldberg, Viola Davis, and Will Smith.
“Number One on the Call Sheet” premiers on Apple TV+ on March 28.
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