Eddie Murphy Says ‘Worst Actor Of the Decade’ Razzie Led Him to Quit Acting For a While

Eddie Murphy is one of the most successful comedy stars ever, but his string of bad films and subsequent Razzie Award led him to quit acting for a while. Murphy, who is back on (small) screens with Coming 2 America on Amazon Prime Video, appeared on Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast and among other things talked about the string of critical and commercial flops in the late ’00s such as Showtime, I Spy, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Norbit, Meet Dave, Imagine That, and A Thousand Words.

That series of films led to some of the worst financial and critical results of his career, and earned Murphy nine Razzie Awards nominations and three wins (all three for Norbit). He was also named the Worst Actor of the Decade in a special award in 2010. Murphy talked about how that led to him stepping back from acting for a while.

“I was making s**tty movies,” Murphy said. “I was like, ‘This shit ain’t fun. They’re giving me Razzies … Motherf**kers gave me the ‘Worst Actor Ever’ Razzie. [So I thought], ‘Maybe it’s time to take a break.'”

Murphy noted that his break lasted longer than anticipated, saying, “I was only gonna take a break for a year, then all of a sudden six years go by, and I’m sitting on the couch, and I could sit on the couch and not get off it, but I don’t want to the last bunch of s**t they see me do [to be] bulls**t. The plan was to go do Dolemite [Is My Name], Saturday Night Live, Coming 2 America, and then do stand-up and see how I felt afterwards. At least then they’ll know I’m [still] funny.”

Murphy’s performance in Dolemite was literally a redemption for him, as the Razzies awarded him the Razzie Redeemer Award for the film. Amazon has said that Coming 2 America has had the largest streaming opening of any film since the pandemic started in March of 2020 and “far exceeded any of our wildest expectations.”