Although he's been a fixture in Hollywood since his days on Saturday Night Live in the
'80s, Eddie Murphy hasn't really done all that much in the last handful of years.
So where has he been?
And what has he been up to?
Here's a look at the real reason you don't hear from Eddie Murphy anymore.
This was all planned
Although fans may be confused by Murphy's recent absence from the big screen, the superstar
comedian has actually been laying the groundwork for retirement for years.
"And I'm planning to make movies til I'm 50, that's 2 years and 8 months, then I'm going,
then I'm going back to the stage."
Since then, Murphy has mostly lived up to his word.
His last major star vehicle, Tower Heist, hit theaters a few months after his 50th birthday.
He's since appeared in only two other movies: the underwhelming A Thousand Words, in 2012;
and the very-low-profile indie Mr. Church, which opened to mostly negative reviews in
2016.
Meanwhile, he did a bit of standup for the first time in almost three decades while accepting
the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2015.
"Ya know they call it a prize, it's an award, cause usually when there's a prize there's
money involved."
(audience laughs)
"I thought I was gonna get some paper, I was like 'Yooo'"
Not interested in Hollywood
So why is Murphy basically retired?
According to an interview with Rolling Stone, it's simple: he's just happy with his life.
"I only want to do what I really want to do, otherwise I'm content to sit here and play
my guitar all day.
I always tell people now that I'm a semiretired gentleman of leisure, and occasionally I'll
go do some work to break the boredom up.
… I'm chilling, no stress."
Sounds pretty awesome.
From funny to flops
Murphy's big-screen career has always been a bit of a roller coaster, from highs like
Beverly Hills Cop to lows like The Adventures of Pluto Nash, which remains one of Hollywood's
biggest failures.
Still, the last decade has been especially unkind to Murphy.
In 2007 he starred in Norbit, for which he "won" three Razzie Awards, and followed that
up with a string of critical and box office bombs, including Meet Dave, Imagine That,
and A Thousand Words.
"Uh, uh, aahh, ahhhhh!
Aaaahhhhhhh!"
To his credit, Murphy has been a bit more reflective in recent years, telling The Washington
Post that he was through taking roles just for the money.
"The check movies are over for me."
Oscars snub
Murphy made headlines in November 2011 when he announced he would no longer be hosting
the 84th annual Academy Awards, set to air the following February.
His decision didn't exactly come as a surprise.
It was announced a day after that Brett Ratner, the director of Tower Heist, had dropped out
as the telecast's producer after making anti-gay remarks and discussing his sex life on Howard
Stern.
Still, Murphy's decision to quit the Oscars didn't sit well with everyone, especially
among members of the Academy.
One member told The Hollywood Reporter, "This is like a big middle finger to the Academy
and to the industry," while another added, "It was a career mistake.
What the hell was he thinking?"
Return to SNL
Murphy was one of many famous faces who took part in Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary
special in February 2015.
But despite his high-profile appearance, Murphy left many fans underwhelmed when he gave what
amounted to a barely one-minute speech.
What kept him from doing more?
"I will always love this show, and let's keep on, let's have some more show let's have a
big round of applause to everybody."
According to the Washington Post, SNL wanted him to play Bill Cosby, which didn't sit well
with Murphy at the time, given that Cosby was facing accusations that he had sexually
assaulted dozens of women throughout his career.
"I totally understood [why SNL wanted to do it].
It was the biggest thing in the news at the time.
I can see why they thought it would be funny, and the sketch that Norm [Macdonald] wrote
was hysterical.
[But the story is] horrible.
There's nothing funny about it.
If you get up there and you crack jokes about him, you're just hurting people.
You're hurting him.
You're hurting his accusers.
I was like, 'Hey, I'm coming back to SNL for the anniversary, I'm not turning my moment
on the show into this other thing.'"
Ironically, Murphy wound up impersonating Cosby while accepting his Mark Twain Award
that October.
"Some of the people, who feel that I should give back my ------ ------- trophies!"
He expanded his family
Murphy's preference for being a chill dad over a Hollywood megastar was confirmed in
May 2016 when he and his girlfriend, Paige Butcher, welcomed their first child together,
Izzy Oona Murphy.
He clearly likes being a dad — he has eight other children with four other women.
But while he's enjoying new fatherhood once again, there are limits even for him.
"I don't change diapers."
"You don't?"
"No.
Cause I would be horrible at it, and that's not fair to the child."
Projects in the works
Although you may not see much of Murphy these days, that doesn't necessarily mean he'll
be gone forever.
In fact, the actor has a number of projects in development, including a role playing Richard
Pryor's father in the new movie for Lee Daniels and the long-gestating fourth installment
in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise.
Speaking to Ellen DeGeneres about the latter project in 2013, Murphy revealed that he and
others were still fine-tuning the script.
"If we can get the script just right it's something that we'll do.
But it has to perfect cause I don't wanna do anything else that sucks."
"Ya."
"Ever again."
(Laughs)
"That's a good goal, that's a really good goal.
I think most of us have that goal.
Good, well, I hope-"
"I don't wanna suck no more."
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