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‘I Wish Michael Jackson Had Taken A Break From Hollywood Like I Did’ – Eddie Murphy

Published

3 years ago

July 4, 2022

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Eddie Murphy

Edie Murphy is back on top, but the comedian recently shared why he decided to walk away from Hollywood for years before his comeback.

“Maybe about eight years ago, I said it’s time to take a break and not really be pushing at movies like I used to,” he explained.

“Getting it right, and getting it right with the director, and getting it right with the writers, and having everything work together — that takes a lot of effort, you know, and it’s strenuous. I had gotten to where I was just so burnt out on the process of making a movie that if I was a little boy I would start crying.”

“My career, or what I am as an artist, that’s not at the center of my life,” he told Vanity Fair. “At the center of my life is my family and my kids. That’s the principal relationship, and everything comes after that. I have 10 kids, and I’m present, and I’m part of their lives. You got to have some kind of balance with career and personal life.”

“I started making movies when I was 20, and I auditioned for ‘SNL’ when I was 18, so that’s 40 years ago,” he continued. “So I had a little crossroads where it was like, ‘It’s time to back off, and sit on the couch and just be Dad.’ Now, I just want to do stuff where there’s an emotional hook, and it’s something that I’m really into, and not just doing it because, you know, somebody flashed a big dollar sign in front of you.”

And the Dolemite Is My Name star expressed that he wishes that Michael Jackson and Prince had both taken a step back from the Hollywood spotlight too.

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What an HONOR to be nominated, let alone recognized as Winners at this year’s @criticschoice

A post shared by Dolemite Is My Name (@dolemiteismyname) on Jan 12, 2020 at 6:29pm PST

“So many of my contemporaries are dead, like the people that came on the scene when I came on the scene in the ’80s,” he told the publication. “The people that I knew around my age, that had impact in their areas, they’re mostly…they’re gone. Michael and Prince…and Whitney, those are my contemporaries. And they’re gone.”

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And that you did, Eddie. That you did.

A post shared by Dolemite Is My Name (@dolemiteismyname) on Dec 27, 2019 at 10:34am PST

“Without getting into the logistics of what they did, as to why they’re not here, what they all had in common was that their career, their life as artists, was all-consuming. That was that. The center of their whole shit, their life revolved around them as artists,” he went on.

“Everything else suffered as a result of that. Your personal relationships, and your finances, and all that stuff. Substance abuse problems. All that stuff [happens] because show business can’t be what’s at the center. Especially if you get to reach these highest levels, and you’re Michael Jackson, or you’re Prince, or you’re Elvis. If you’re sitting on that, and show business is everything, that’s the recipe for early exit.”