Eddie Murphy Reveals the Three Iconic Films He Regrets Turning Down
A Hollywood heavyweight finally names the big three wish-I-would-have-done movies that got away — and the surprising reasons they passed.
Even when you are Eddie Murphy - Beverly Hills Cop badge, Nutty Professor fat suit, the whole thing - there are still a few big fish that got away. In a new chat with the Associated Press, Murphy rattled off the three movies he passed on that still haunt him a little. And yeah, they are whoppers.
"Ghostbusters, I was supposed to do Ghostbusters. Didn't do that, and Rush Hour. Didn't do that. Oh, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Those are my big three 'wish I would have done' movies."
The twist is all three became massive hits without him. But it is fun to imagine an alternate timeline where Murphy's name on the poster nudges those box office totals even higher.
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Ghostbusters - This one stings for the trivia nerds. Dan Aykroyd originally dreamed up a Saturday Night Live super-team for the movie, a lineup that would have included the late John Belushi before his passing. Murphy would have rounded out that plan. The behind-the-scenes what-if factor here is pretty wild, even though the Ghostbusters we got turned out just fine.
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Rush Hour - The part Murphy walked away from went to Chris Tucker, who turned Detective Carter into a motor‑mouthed foil for Jackie Chan's fish‑out‑of‑water Chief Inspector Lee. The buddy-cop mash-up clicked hard: $245 million worldwide, two sequels, and a fourth movie that has been circling development for years.
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Who Framed Roger Rabbit - Bob Hoskins' gruff, perpetually annoyed private eye gets stuck working with an animated rabbit, which sounds insane on paper and turns out to be lightning in a bottle. The film is still a landmark for mixing live action and animation, and it works because Hoskins plays every beat absolutely straight. If Murphy had said yes, maybe we never get that exact tightrope act - and the movie is different in ways that are hard to picture.
So yeah, Murphy passed on three juggernauts and everyone involved still landed on their feet. He did too, obviously. But hearing him say it out loud is a neat little peek at how close Hollywood history comes to being completely different.