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18th Annual Mark Twain Prize For Humor

 

Eddie Murphy is making his return to the big screen after five years of absence. To help promote Mr. Church, which has garnered Murphy some of the best reviews in his career, Murphy sat down for his first-ever podcast interview with The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter.

During the interview, Murphy opened up about his recent past, saying, “I haven’t been in the movies the last five years because I was giving the audience a break,” and gave us some rare insight into his life and mind. Here are five things that surprised us:

 

1. Other A-list comedians think he’s a “tightass.”

Murphy admitted, “I don’t drink – I don’t have like this moral thing, I just don’t do it – and I don’t get high.” This fact is made even more impressive considering his years at SNL where he spent countless hours with costars Robin WilliamsJohn Belushi, and Dan Aykroyd, all known recreational drug users and addicts. He recalled,”Belushi and Robin Williams offered me some blow and I didn’t take it, and Belushi called me a ‘tightass.’” considering the fact that if he had accepted drugs years before he could have ended up in trouble in the same way.

2. He really wants an Oscar.

Murphy knows why people love him, his humor, but he also admitted that with the premiere of Mr. Church, Murphy is thinking about going for the gold…statuette. “I have a table already where it would look great,” he said. “I’ll wait because I’m pretty healthy, I’m gonna be around for a while and if I don’t get it then eventually, when I’m 90 — what’s the one they give you just because you’ve been in the business so long? Eventually they’re gonna have to give me that sh*t.

3. He’s been writing new material this whole time.

Just when we thought he had one foot in retirement, Murphy let us in on what he was doing in those five years before Mr. Church: “I wrote a bunch of stuff, but I wasn’t reading anything. I was in the backyard, just enjoying the yard. And [Mr. Church] popped up out of nowhere and I had a really strong emotional response to it.” He continued, “I never did anything like this. It was something I could do where there was no pressure at all because there was no expectation because this isn’t a funny thing. The engine of this thing isn’t my sense of humor or what I do or my performance.”

4. He has other people pre-read media coverage about him.

For a celebrity of Murphy’s stature, negative press and reviews can become a real drain on your life. To avoid that, Murphy takes extra precautions. “I really don’t read stuff about me. Like, if there’s an article about me, someone has to read through it before they even give it to me. I don’t want to see anything that has anything negative. So I don’t know what y’all think.” he said.

5. He hates social media and doesn’t have an e-mail address.                             Don’t bother looking for Eddie on Snapchat. I don’t need to be on social media interacting with the fans, tweeting that I just ate strawberries. Nothing has made me go, ‘Oh, yeah, get me on, too, I want to be on there with y’all! I just had strawberries too!’ ‘I’m going to the store now!’ ‘Look at this picture of this baby!” he said. “I don’t feel any pressure to live up to any whatever — expectation — anyone may have.” He continues, “I don’t have a computer, I don’t have email, I don’t have any of that sh*t. 

While Mr. Church was first released in April at the Tribeca Film Festival, it is set to release nationwide on September 16th.

SOURCE: TheHollywoodReporter | PHOTO: Getty

The 5 Craziest Things We Learned About Eddie Murphy In His First-Ever Podcast Interview  was originally published on globalgrind.com