Eddie Murphy’s been everywhere of late. He was on Letterman last night. It was recently announced that he’d be hosting the Oscars. All of this has led many to speculate that he’s attempting to revive/remake his career.
Well, the new issue of Rolling Stone includes a cover feature on Murphy (only excerpts of which are online at present) in which he pretty much confirms that he’s tired of making “family movies” and wants to get back to doing “edgy” stuff, which I interpret to mean wearing orange leather on stage and saying “faggot” a lot.
“I don’t have any interest in (family movies) right now,” he says. “There’s really no blueprint, but I’m trying to do some edgy stuff. And I only want to do what I really want to do, otherwise I’m content to sit here and play my guitar all day. I always tell people now that I’m a semiretired gentleman of leisure, and occasionally I’ll go do some work to break the boredom up.”
So, yes, doing stand-up again is a possibility, he told the magazine. If that does happen, let’s all hope that his act evolves a little — I recently watched some old clips of his stuff on YouTube and let’s just say that it hasn’t aged well.
“If I ever get back onstage, I’m going to have a really great show for you all,” he says. “An hour and a half of stand-up and about 40 minutes of my shitty band . . . But I haven’t done it since I was 27, so why fuck with it? But that’s just weighing both sides. It comes up too much for me to not do it again. It’s like, when it hits me, I’ll do it, eventually.”
Additionally, Murphy was quick to dispel rumors that he’s a recluse. Here’s how he described his personal life at present, which is basically that of a boring older man.
I’m not at all the Hollywood parties. I’m grown, and where else am I supposed to be? I’m supposed to be home . . . If I were out in the clubs every night, they’d be saying, ‘That’s a shame, look at him, 50 years old, he’s still out at these clubs.’ Recluses are nasty, with long nails, don’t wash their ass. . . . I’m too vain to be a recluse. But homebody, absolutely. I’m 50 years old, beautiful house, I’m supposed to be home, chilling.”
Finally, here he is on Letterman last night, talking about hosting the Oscars…