On a recent podcast episode of WTF with Marc Maron, famed actor and comedian Eddie Murphy opened up about why he took a break from acting.
Murphy's been in a few noteworthy projects as of late, one being Coming 2 America, the sequel to the 1988 original comedy.
However, before the break he took, Murphy starred in a number of films that were poorly received by critics.
"I was making sh*tty movies," he said, referring to a number of critically acclaimed films that earned him a Razzie award for the Worst Actor of the Decade category.
The Razzies is short for The Raspberry Awards, which is a parody award show that awards the worst cinematic achievements in films. The first award ceremony was held in 1981.
"I was like, 'This sh*t ain't fun. They're giving me Razzies...M*****f***ers gave me the 'Worst actor ever' Razzie. Maybe it's time to take a break,'" he said.
Murphy revealed that he intended to only take a year off from acting. However, that one year turned into six and one day he realized he was just “sitting on the couch."
In the end, Murphy decided to return to acting after coming to the realization that he didn’t want to be remembered for a bunch of bad movies. He felt that his legacy was bigger than that.
"I could sit on the couch and not get off it, but I don't want the last bunch of sh*t they see me do [to be] bullsh*t," he said.
Earlier this month, Murphy appeared on the SiriusXM podcast Comedy Gold Minds with Kevin Hart and revealed that he wants to return to stand-up comedy. However, he only wants to return to the stage after it's safe for him to do so.
"The plan was to go do Dolemite, Saturday Night Live, Coming 2 America, and then do stand-up and see how I felt afterwards," he explained, detailing his ill-fated plans to return. "At least then they'll know I'm funny."
All did not go to plan, however, as the country went into lockdown in the middle of his.
"The whole time last year I would have been out working on my act, trying to get my sh*t right, and then the whole thing shut down," he lamented.
His 1987 film Raw remains the top-grossing stand-up comedy movie of all time, earning more than $50 million.
Murphy’s latest project, Coming 2 America will tell the story of Akeem and his journey to Queens, New York with best friend Semmi (Arsenio Hall) to find his son.
The highly anticipated sequel is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.