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Eddie Murphy says he "forced" himself to ditch his signature laugh after people started "making too much of it."
Asked by Kevin Polowy in an interview for CBR if he had opted to "retire" Axel’s laugh from the newly revived Beverly Hills Cop franchise, Murphy pointed out that this feature of the beloved character was not a creation but was instead an extension of himself. Still, the laugh took on a life of its own, ultimately pushing the Oscar-nominated actor to undergo a truly "unnatural" experience.
"Not Axel’s laugh, it was my laugh," Murphy, who will soon be seen in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F on Netflix, said. "That was my laugh. In the 80s, I was like, I don’t wanna be known for a laugh. I noticed some people would do an impression of me, and if somebody was doing an impression, that’s all they did was they’d laugh."
Murphy said audiences were fond of these laugh-focused impressions, although the same clearly can’t be said for him.
"It was like, you know what? I’m gonna stop laughing [like that]," he explained. "I forced myself to stop laughing [like that], which is really an unnatural thing. You laugh and say, okay, I have to stop laughing like that. And now, I don’t laugh like that anymore."
Such impressions, Murphy added, persist to this day, as do those of the Donkey variety.
Axel F, directed by Mark Molloy, sees Murphy joined by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kevin Bacon for the fourth film in the previously dormant franchise. It follows 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III, with Murphy having repeatedly explained that the long wait for another sequel came down to getting the story exactly right.
The film launches on July 3 on Netflix. Below, get a glimpse at what to expect.
