These days, Eddie Murphy’s 1988 film “Coming to America” is considered a cult classic, but according to one of the film’s costars, it almost never made it off the cutting room floor. And now we know why.
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Former late-night TV host and comedian Arsenio Hall recently sat down for a new interview on SiriusXM’s “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend” podcast. If you’ll remember, “Coming to America” follows an extremely pampered African prince from Zamunda who travels to Queens, New York, in an undercover attempt to find a wife that he can respect, as opposed to a yes-woman.
In the film, both Murphy and Hall play multiple characters, including women at a bar and a group of gents at a barbershop. But despite the highly quotable scenes, iconic outfits and overall love of the film now, Hall told O’Brien that the movie almost didn’t see the light of day.
“They [Paramount Studios] turned “Coming to America” down,” Hall said. “We went and pitched it at Paramount and they said, ‘No, thank you.’ And we were like, ‘Give us some notes. What should we do? ‘And they were like, ‘We’re not sure, but you know, it’s a fish out of water. We’ve seen this a billion times.’”
Hall went on to say that the original iteration of the film didn’t have either of the stars portraying multiple characters. But after studio execs explained that audiences were missing Murphy’s “Saturday Night Live” days and his ability to comedically portray different people, Hall and Murphy went back to the drawing board to figure out a resolution.
“He [the Paramount exec] said, ‘Everybody wants to see Eddie do characters again. Everybody misses SNL. How about if the people you meet in America are played by Eddie?’” Hall explained. “And it’s Eddie that said, ‘Hey, I saw Arsenio do stand up on this HBO thing. And he does this thing about Jesse Jackson. I know he can do a great preacher and we can come up with some barbers.’”
Hall said the idea of playing characters alongside one of the greats was intimidating.
He continued: “Eddie came up with the specific characters. And I just sat there shaking because I’m like, I got to do characters with Eddie Murphy. That’s like saying, you know, check Jordan. Lock that motherf*cker down.”
Thankfully, things all worked out, and the film grossed over $288 million worldwide at the box office, further cementing Murphy’s legacy as one of the greatest comedic actors of our time.
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