Raw Deal: Eddie Murphy is Done With Family Films, Wants Edgier Work, and Might Return to Stand-Up

By  · Published on October 26th, 2011

You should read the interview in its long-form, or even just the highlights, but Rolling Stone has convinced Eddie Murphy to sit down for his first chat in a long while, and the result is the kind of thing that gets an Amen from the last pew in the row. At 50, the actor has “no interest” in doing more family movies – a genre that never gelled with his comic sensibilities in the first place – and even though Beverly Hills Cop 4 isn’t going to happen, he’s still looking to do “edgy stuff.”

It would seem as though he has a firm grasp on his own financial security and his ability to turn down jobs (although that realization seems to have come a few years too late), because he’s ready to give up on movies if the right projects don’t come along. If they don’t, he’s content to hang out in a giant house playing guitar, or to get back on the road doing stand-up comedy.

Putting Murphy in family movies was like casting a tank in a ballet. In a way, this announcement comes from a coma patient finally rousing in his hospital bed, and while retirement would at least save the world from more Meet Daves, the optimum option for fans is for the comedy legend to find some scripts that play to his strengths and get him back in the game in a major way.

Movie stuff at VanityFair, Thrillist, IndieWire, Film School Rejects, and The Broken Projector Podcast@brokenprojector | Writing short stories at Adventitious.