After becoming one of the icons of comedy, Eddie Murphy made the decision to temporarily retire at the beginning of the 2010s. After several years away from the media spotlight, he gradually resurrected his career with films of little economic importance, such as Mr. Church (2016), or with great acceptance by critics, as was the case with Yo soy Dolemite (2020) for Netflix.
And now, at 59 years old (he turns 60 in April), he is planted again in Hollywood with one of his most mythical characters: that of the King of Zamunda with the sequel to The Prince of Zamunda (1988) , recently released in the Amazon’s Prime Video platform.
Thanks to the promotion of this film where he recovers the now former prince Akeem Joffer, Murphy has given an interview to Marc Maron’s WTF podcast where he has detailed the reasons for his withdrawal at the beginning of the last decade .
“I was making shitty movies,” admits the actor. “It said, ‘ This shit isn’t funny. They are giving me Razzies. The bastards gave me the Razzie to the worst actor ever. Maybe it’s time for a break ” “ .
And it is that throughout the 2000 Murphy was accumulating critical and public failures that led him to be nominated on several occasions for the Razzie Awards, those awards known as the anti-Oscars that are delivered the day before the awards of the Academy to the worst of the cinema in the last year.
It was the case of Norbit , Trapped in a crazy person , Imagine That or the last movie before his retirement A Thousand Words . Although, as the interpreter explained well, these awards that give their awards to the worst of the year in 2010 “honored” him with a special award for the worst actor of the decade, which made him rethink his career.
But are the Razzies really serious awards to take to heart? Does the public take them into consideration? The truth is, no. In reality, they are awards that much of Hollywood tends to take as a joke, however it can be understood that in the case of Eddie Murphy the joke has ended up bothering him. If year after year they remind you that your work is not working, that you are pigeonholed in the same roles and that you cannot get out of that loop, perhaps you will end up taking them more seriously.
As a result, Murphy was retired for several years, although he took advantage of this retirement to resume his work in music . This facet of the actor is not so well known, but throughout his career he has released three albums: How Could It Be in 1985, So Happy in 1989 and Love’s Alright in 1993. In addition, in several films we have heard him bring out his voice, like when he sang To Be Loved by Jackie Wilson in The Prince of Zamunda or when in Shrek he sang I’m a Believer by Smash Mouth or Living la vida loca by Ricky Martin with Antonio Banderas.
Between 2012 and 2016 he recorded several songs such as Red Lid , Promise , Oh Jah Jah or Temporary and shot their respective video clips. He also participated in the special that Saturdady Night Live aired on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, but we did not see him return to work as an actor until in 2016 he starred in Bruce Beresford’s Mr. Church . It took another three years to see him in action again in I am Dolemite , a film for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in Drama in 2019 and with which he reconciled with the Razzie Awards after awarding him a Redemption Award. .
“I was only going to take a year off and suddenly six had passed . I was sitting on the couch, I could be sitting on the couch and not get up, but I didn’t want the last things they saw of me to be shit. The plan was to do Dolemite, Saturday Night Live, The King of Zamunda and then do monologues and see how I felt afterwards. At least people will know that I’m still funny, “ explained Murphy on the podcast about his retirement.
Now El rey de Zamunda has just premiered on Prime Video, which according to data from the audience measurement company Screen Engine collected by The Hollywood Reporter , would have become the biggest premiere of a streaming movie of this year and of all 2020 .