This Is the Key to Acting Opposite Eddie Murphy
There was once a time when Eddie Murphy was the biggest movie star on the entire planet. And when you go back and watch his performances in ‘80s classics like Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places, and 48 Hrs., it’s certainly no secret why.
Even in more recent, not-so-acclaimed projects, Murphy’s dominant energy still comes through to some extent. Like, we’re not going to go to bat for Candy Cane Lane, a movie in which Murphy battles an army of CGI French hens commanded by a demonic Christmas elf, but there’s no denying that the guy has screen presence.
And the recent, surprisingly enjoyable, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F proved that Murphy is fully capable of tapping into that same well of charisma that made him so wildly popular in the first place.
Given all of this, acting opposite Murphy is likely a daunting task for any actor, but it turns out that there’s a trick: Don’t do anything. At least that’s what his Beverly Hills Cop co-star Paul Reiser suggests.
Reiser recently appeared on Ted Danson’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast and the subject of the classic 1984 action-comedy came up. Resier explained that he had met Murphy prior to the production, when the future SNL star was a young stand-up comedian. “I knew Eddie from the comedy clubs, and he was sort of legendary. He was out on Long Island and we were in the city, and we kept hearing, ‘Oh, there’s a kid out on Long Island. He’s so funny.’”
When Reiser got the chance to catch his act, he, too, was blown away by the teenager, telling Danson that he had “never seen that kind of talent.”
Because Reiser had a familiarity with Murphy, when he landed a “little bitty part” in Beverly Hills Cop, he knew exactly what to do. “I wasn’t intimidated, ‘cause I knew him and it was easy to play,” Reiser claimed. And Reiser got a lot of praise for his work in the film, which really just amounted to staying out of Murphy’s way. “I remember somebody goes, ‘Oh, you were so funny in that scene with Eddie.’ I go, ‘Look at the scene. I’m not talking.’”
“Here’s a rule for all of you kids,” Reiser added, “if you’re in a scene with Eddie Murphy, shut the fuck up and just stand there and let him and be Eddie Murphy. And you’ll go, ‘Oh, he looks good — the other guy looks good, doesn’t he?’”
Obviously, Reiser does have dialogue in his scenes, but he never tries to top, or even meet Murphy’s comic energy. In the end, Reiser was happy to get credit for “just standing there (while) Eddie’s bouncing stuff off of me.”
Of course, this trick only works with Eddie Murphy, hence why Reiser didn’t refuse to say his lines on Mad About You.
