‘Coming to America’ star Eddie Murphy says he’s returning to stand-up comedy ‘when the pandemic is over’
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Eddie Murphy’s comeback is not stopping anytime soon.
The "Coming 2 America" actor, 59, appeared alongside Arsenio Hall on an upcoming episode of Kevin Hart’s SiriusXM radio show, "Comedy Gold Minds," and confirmed that he plans to return to stand-up comedy once the coronavirus pandemic is over.
"My plan was to do Dolemite, Saturday Night Live, Coming 2 America, and then do stand up. And then the pandemic hit, and it shut the whole s--t down," Murphy explained. "Then I was going – the whole time last year I would have been out working on my act trying to get my s--t right, and then the whole thing shut down."
He added that "when the pandemic is over and it’s safe for everybody to go out and do it" then, Murphy said, "the plan is to do it."
Murphy also spoke about the original 1988 movie, "Coming to America," revealing an interesting tidbit about the film: he and Arsenio Hall played every single character in the barbershop scenes, which even recently caught Oprah Winfrey off-guard upon learning about it.
Eddie Murphy is planning a stand-up comedy return once the coronavirus pandemic is over. (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts )
"I texted Arsenio last week. I was like, ‘You know, I don't know if everybody knows that we're all of those characters,’" Murphy said. "I did an interview with Oprah last week — I was talking about the movie and I was like, ‘Yeah, and then I'm the old Jewish man.’"
"She was like, ‘What do you mean the old Jewish man?’ I said, ‘That's me in the barbershop,’" Murphy continued. "She said, ‘You're the old Jewish man?!’ And she's seen the original "Coming to America.’ She's seen this. You just [don’t] realize that, you know, I was that character. A lot of people don't realize."
'COMING 2 AMERICA' DROPS FIRST TRAILER FEATURING EDDIE MURPHY, ARSENIO HALL
Murphy and Hall also recently appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," where Hall, 65, revealed that the studio made them cast a White actor to portray the character of Maurice -- who was played by Louie Anderson.
"I love Louie, but I think we were forced to put Louie in it," Hall recalled. "We were forced to put [in] a White person."
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Similarly, Murphy remembered Paramount was opposed to the 1988 movie having an all-Black cast.
Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall reprise their roles in 'Coming 2 America.' (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)
"They were like, ‘There has to be a White person in the movie,'" he said. "So who was the funniest White guy around? Louie, we knew him, he was was cool, so that's how Louie got in the movie."
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Anderson, 67, is set to reprise his role in "Coming 2 America." The movie will premiere for streaming on Amazon Prime Video on Friday.
Fox News’ Nate Day contributed to this report
