*Eddie Murphy headlines the new Netflix film “Dolemite Is My Name” next month, and he’ll follow up his small-screen return by hosting “Saturday Night Live’s” Christmas episode, marking his first time leading the show in 35 years.
As we previously reported, Murphy, 58, is also set to go on a stand-up comedy tour next year and star in the anticipated sequel to “Coming to America.”
Now the Hollywood icon is speaking out about his return to the spotlight, explaining to PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly in Toronto on Sunday: “I was on the couch for maybe five six years and now it’s time to get off the couch.”
“I was on the couch because I was rested, I mean I was tired,” he continued. “I’d been making movies and doing this stuff for so long I just needed time to be on the couch. Now, I’m off and [Dolemite] kind of lit a spark because it turned out so well and it got the creative juices flowing.”
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Can’t wait for #ComingToAmerica2? ?
Eddie Murphy confirms Sexual Chocolate and more aspects of the original are set to return https://t.co/sw4gIhZdrr #TIFF19 pic.twitter.com/1ctDAeoYCz
— LAT Entertainment (@latimesent) September 8, 2019
Directed by “Hustle & Flow‘s” Craig Brewer, “Dolemite Is My Name” was a passion project for Murphy. The film stars Eddie as comedian Rudy Ray Moore, who used the character of Dolemite to become a Blaxploitation icon in the ’70s. Murphy long ago met with Moore, who died in 2008 at the age of 81, to discuss making a movie.
“I never let go of the idea. It was always something I thought could be a great movie. I had been sitting on the couch. I took some time to do nothing,” Murphy said in an interview. “It goes back to when Rudy was alive. I literally went to see him at a club. It just didn’t come together. And there was no Netflix back then.”
After years away from the stage, Brewer said watching Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore on set was like watching the famed comic doing stand-up again.
“Eddie comes in as Rudy and he starts telling jokes. And like Eddie does, he goes completely off book. If something comes, he just rolls into it,” Brewer said. “Then he left and I turned to the audience and said, ‘Y’all, do you realize what just happened? I don’t think he’s done that in like years! Decades!'”
Brewer previously told Entertainment Weekly, “I would say that the joy of my life has been this new working relationship with Eddie. I think he’s a true artist, as much as I know some people would go, ‘What? He’s a comedian, he’s an actor.’ Once you say ‘action,’ a fully formed character is coming out,” he explained. “We’ve established a really great, respectful working relationship. Also, I just wanted to work my a** off to see him on the big screen again doing what he does best.”
“Dolemite Is My Name” opens Oct. 4 in select theaters and arrives on Netflix Oct. 25.
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