Eddie Murphy says he's the 'most comfortable' he's 'ever been' at 60
Eddie Murphy also tells Oprah Winfrey about working on the script of "Coming 2 America." Credit: Getty Images for Netflix / Emma McIntyre
Roosevelt-raised comedy legend Eddie Murphy says he welcomed turning 60.
"I'm the most comfortable I've ever been in my skin," the star, whose 60th birthday was on April 3, tells Oprah Winfrey in a promotional clip posted by People magazine Thursday for Friday's episode of her Apple TV Plus series "The Oprah Conversation."
"I feel great and optimistic and totally comfortable in Eddie," he added, and assured Winfrey that he "always was comfortable in my skin, but not like now."
In a second clip, provided to Newsday and other media, he says that before undertaking "Coming 2 America," the recently released sequel to his 1988 hit "Coming to America," he understood the high expectations for the film.
Saying that he was "not at all" apprehensive over whether the sequel could live up to what Winfrey calls the "cultural phenomenon" of the original, Murphy explains, "I knew that I wasn't making the movie unless I had a script that was good. And we worked on the script for four years, and when the script got right I was like, 'OK, let's make this movie.' "
Murphy — who got his start in Long Island comedy clubs and went on to star on "Saturday Night Live," followed by a string of hit films including "48 Hrs." (1982), "Trading Places" (1983), "Beverly Hills Cop" (1984), the animated "Shrek" franchise and others — said, "I was aware that the [original] movie had become, like, this cult picture, and there was some people that was, like, 'Don't mess it up!' " he said, chuckling. "Y'know, 'I don't even know if I want to see him do no sequel! Why you gonna mess with that movie?' "
Laughing, he added, "I heard that kind of chatter. But I wasn't making it until the script was right."
In Amazon Prime Video's "Coming 2 America," which began streaming March 5 and received a 49% positive rating at the film-review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Murphy's prince from the original movie has ascended to the throne, and with his confidant Semmi (Arsenio Hall) returns to Queens, where he had found his future wife, Lisa McDowell (Shari Headley).
