After Several Miscues, Murphy Gets Some Roles People Want to See

Eddie Murphy is trading places with success--again. Hollywood’s latest comeback kid is celebrating his 20th anniversary in show business with a box-office hit and another film on the way.

Until “Independence Day” landed, Murphy’s “The Nutty Professor” was the No. 1 movie in America. And even with the high-voltage competition, his rotund Sherman Klump still has audiences smiling.

Taking a break on the San Francisco set of his next film, a drama called “Metro,” the 35-year-old Murphy reflected on the success and gamble of “The Nutty Professor,” his frenetic career and where he goes from here.

“This is a trip,” Murphy said. “This whole town works on numbers. I feel like a big weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. I feel like I’m in school and I got an A.”

That “A” is a $25.4-million opening last weekend--one of the biggest openers of the year. “I’m charged up. I’m glad I did a movie where everybody got the joke.”

Noting the film “has more than our flatulence quota,” he said, “I think the movie does cross over to more than just kids. It plays to everybody.”

Movies that didn’t play to everyone were a recent handful: “Boomerang,” “Beverly Hills Cop III,” “Distinguished Gentleman” and “Vampire in Brooklyn.” None struck a chord with audiences as did Murphy’s big hits, “48 HRS.,” “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Trading Places.”

“Nutty Professor,” which features Murphy playing seven roles, seems to be his ticket back to the winning ranks. While Murphy and his handlers say he never slid from the big leagues, they concede a hit has everything to do with pushing his name to the top of every studio’s agenda. When asked if the offers had started to roll in, Murphy just laughed, since the film had only been in theaters a few days. “Besides,” he added, “I’m not a guy who gets a lot of calls. I’ve always kind of generated my own stuff.”

Perhaps. But several studio executives said informally they’ve been watching Murphy in anticipation of a comeback.

“Look, Eddie is a comic genius,” said John Goldwyn, president of Paramount’s motion pictures group.

“It’s always been my belief that in the right part with the right director Eddie would be back in a very big way. He never lost his audience,” Goldwyn said. “They just checked out for a while because they didn’t like the roles Eddie was in. But they’ve showed him now how much they really do want him back. I, for one, am a big fan of Eddie.” Would Goldwyn put Paramount’s money where his praise is? “You bet.”

As it happens, Paramount was the home of Murphy’s last comeback try. Four years ago the press was trumpeting Murphy’s second try at the top with a multi-picture deal at the studio and a crossover comedy called “Boomerang.”

Five years prior, the tables had turned on the young superstar: “Harlem Nights” and “Another 48 HRS.” lost money and were pummeled by critics. Murphy was slammed with a paternity suit, then sexual harassment charges and a lawsuit by his former manager claiming a percentage of Murphy’s earnings.

Worst of all, Murphy and Paramount were targets of the highly publicized Art Buchwald breach of contract case, which challenged the authorship of “Coming to America,” a tale credited to Murphy. He was also attacked for gay baiting and misogynistic jokes in his stage performances, particularly in the concert film “Raw.” Conventional wisdom had it that his audience was turning away. Murphy retreated from public view until the Paramount deal.

But “Boomerang” failed to be a cure. The hoped-for hit proved the beginning of a second string of disappointments. Brian Grazer, a partner in Imagine Entertainment, who produced both “Boomerang” and “The Nutty Professor,” blames the press for unfairly trashing “Boomerang” as a flop. “That film cost $31 million and it ended up making $130 million box office worldwide. That’s no flop,” Grazer said. Still, it didn’t bring in the U.S. box-office grosses typical of Murphy’s films.

“I’ve known Eddie for a long time and I know he has it in him,” Grazer said. “We really became friends on this film. ‘Boomerang’ was a hard experience. Finding a quality vehicle tested his talent. This demonstrated his artistic ability.”

*

Grazer remains so enthused he plans to do two more films with Murphy. Next is a buddy comedy called “Life,” about two guys sentenced to life in prison, which Grazer hopes can begin production in January. Murphy can expect makeup work on this movie, too, since the role ages him from 25 to 50. It will be packed with plenty of raw, edgy humor about life in the slammer, Grazer said. The narrator is Richard Pryor, the comic Murphy patterned himself after in the early days.

But before Murphy takes on another role he plans to flex his stand-up muscles again. He said he wants to take about three months and put together a stand-up routine, then go on tour. Which is how Murphy started in show business 20 years ago on Tuesday.

“I look back and I see that I was just always trying different things, with comedy, with movies, with music. You know, I look at my movies and they really did end up making money except ‘Vampire,’ ” he said.

The 1995 “Vampire in Brooklyn” may have been the wake-up call. Murphy said he never really wanted to star in it, just produce. He agreed to star if Paramount would release him to do a remake of “The Nutty Professor” for Universal, which he’d always wanted to make.

“The whole concept of ‘The Nutty Professor’ being done again was tricky to me because that film is such a huge part of the Jerry Lewis iconography, the whole thing with the buck teeth and [stuff],” Murphy said. “With something great like that, you don’t remake it exactly. My idea was to look at how the American public is obsessed with looking a certain way. That’s where I came up with the idea of making the professor fat.”

Grazer says Murphy wanted the fat role so badly he was willing to waive director and script approval, unheard of for a star at Murphy’s level. Obviously Grazer agreed, but he was nervous about Murphy taking the other roles in the movie and insisted that he screen test them.

“[Eddie] said he wanted to do all of these other roles and he did a screen test on every one, the first time he’s done a screen test since ‘Saturday Night Live.’ I was reluctant because I knew the extra roles would drive up the cost with all that makeup. But it worked. Who can argue it?”

*

Murphy said: “You know Sherman was actually the easiest to do after a while. The Richard Simmons character Lance Perkins . . . now that was different.

“I had to get down to Universal at 4:30 in the morning and stand in this kiddie pool in this little brief and have these five guys putting that cold pasty paint on me and I was freezing my ass off. I’d walk around in that makeup and carried on conversations with people who didn’t know who I was. It was crazy.”

“Metro,” the film he’s working on now, is not so crazy. Murphy said it’s more like “48 HRS.” And after that?

Murphy wants to tell Stevie Wonder’s story. And not the parody he used to do on “Saturday Night Live.”

“This is for real,” he said. “This is serious. Stevie’s story has everything . . . a child prodigy at 12, a black blind man who crossed every barrier. You know I never do movies about the ‘hood. I like movies about overcoming adversity.”

Grazer said he plans to produce that picture as well.

Until then, Murphy walks from his latest hit with the lesson box-office grosses teach every star: “I can’t let such a long period go before I do some comedy again. That’s what people want to see me in. And that’s OK.”