Eddie Murphy is back in the business of creating action flicks with “Beverly Hills Cop 4.” Filming for the production kicked off in early 2022, but has since concluded. Murphy spoke about his experience reprising his role as detective Axel Foley after he received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2023 Golden Globes on Tuesday, Jan. 10.
“It was so, so hard…because I did ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ when I was 21,” said the film’s star in an interview with “Entertainment Tonight.”
“I’m 61 so [to] go play a character you played when you was 21, and it physical and action movie, and you know it was just really, really hard,” Murphy added. Photos of the actor in costume surfaced last October.
The first three films combined made more than $700 million at the box office domestically, solidifying Murphy as a bonafide movie star. The last installment was released in 1994, and saw Foley, one of Detroit’s finest, return to the wealthy L.A. enclave of Beverly Hills to uncover details about a murderer and the inner-workings of a counterfeit money operation.
The plot of “Beverly Hills Cop 4” is described as follows: “Axel Foley returns to Beverly Hills once more after receiving a phone call from an old friend warning that his estranged daughter Jane might be in danger. Quickly making new enemies as he teams up with Jane and her ex, Detective Bobby Tapia, Axel finds himself caught up in a conspiracy stretching between deadly cartels and even the Beverly Hills Police.”
The Oscar-nominated actor said he gave his all in the various action-packed scenes. He recalled, “There was one time when I was supposed to be running down some steps and the director Mark Malloy after the take came and said, ‘Can we get another one faster with a greater sense of urgency?’ I was like ‘Get the f**k out of here, yo.’ I was maxed out, I was maxed out.”
The upcoming film will also see Murphy’s character team up with his daughter, played by actress Taylor Paige. The father-daughter dynamic was described by Jerry Bruckheimer, who serves as one of the producers, as an emotional part of the storyline. Murphy agreed that there were plenty of emotions, but for a different reason. “Well, it’s emotional because like I said, I was 61 and I was doing action scenes and you see my heart beating through my chest because I had many times where I felt like I was going to die on the set,” he joked. “Before the movie, I said to Jerry, ‘Listen, I’m 61 and don’t ask me to do s**t that you wouldn’t ask Morgan Freeman to do.’ Despite having a body-double, Murphy said, “I found myself running and jumping, rolling around, and it was a lot.”
