Eddie Murphy Was Told Not to Star in ‘Malcolm X’ by Sidney Poitier: ‘You Are Not Denzel. You Are Not Morgan. You’re a Breath of Fresh Air. Don’t F— With That!’

12 comments

1. >“They were talking about doing ‘Malcolm X,’” Murphy said. “Norman Jewison was putting it together. They were gonna use ”The Autobiography of Malcolm X’ by Alex Haley. And they approached me about playing Alex Haley. Around that same time, I bumped into Sidney Poitier at something, and I asked him, ‘Yeah, I’m thinking about playing Alex Haley!’ And Sidney Poitier said, ‘You are not Denzel [Washington], and you are not Morgan [Freeman]. You are a breath of fresh air, and don’t fuck with that!’”

   >“I didn’t know if it was an insult or a compliment,” Murphy added about being compared to Washington and Freeman. “I was like, ‘What?’”

   >Speculating on why Poitier did not view Murphy in the same field as other actors, Murphy said that he was in “uncharted waters.”

   >“For Sidney and all those guys, when I showed up, it was something kinda new,” Murphy said. “They didn’t have a reference for me, they couldn’t give me advice, because I was 20, 21 years old, and my audience was the mainstream — all of everywhere. My movies [were] all around the world, and they had never had that with a young Black person. So nobody could give me advice, really. Everything broke really big and really fast.”

2. Solid advice, he would have botched that role

3. So he was going to play Alex Haley in the Norman Jewison version of the film that never got made. But the thumbnail has him juxtaposed with Denzel starring as Malcolm X in Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, like somehow he was up for that role.

4. Yeah but Murphy killed it in the Ruddy Ray Moore biopic.

5. always listen to sidney poitier

6. Eddie Murphy just gets more interesting and gorgeous the older he gets.

7. Ya whatever it means

8. I’m ready for yet another Beverly Hills Cop, dug the latest one and Eddie absolutely still has the chops.

9. Eddie Murphy would have been perfect for Malcolm pre-Nation of Islam

10. Just saw 48hrs less than an hour ago. Poitier, was just being honest. Although, Eddie may have done fine as Haley, he had his own style and he should run with that.

11. I’ve always thought Murphy could have explored his dramatic side more like Robin Williams did. That’s not a critique of his career choices but I think the potential was there. He had a bad experience making Harlem Nights so maybe that scared him into sticking with comedies.

12. I think an actor is an actor, and Poitier is a legend but he’s wrong here. Eddie could’ve shown that to be an actor is to be funny, dramatic, romantic, quirky, etc, as others had done before him – though maybe not any that have been quite as modern and mainstream – but still. Didn’t end up hurting him though, clearly. He’s a legend too, obviously.

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