Eddie Murphy reveals THIS movie stopped him from quitting acting
- By Web Desk -
- May 21, 2025
Oscar-nominated Hollywood star Eddie Murphy revealed he had planned to retire from acting a decade ago, until he was approached with a script that gave him a reason to act again.
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For four years, after starring in the Brian Robbins’ Box Office bomb ‘A Thousand Words’ (2012), which itself hit the theatres at least four years after being made in 2008, Eddie Murphy had not signed any new projects as he considered himself retired from films.
However, it was only until the A-list comedian read the script of the poignant drama film, ‘Mr. Church’, that he decided to give up on retirement plans and return to acting.
“I wasn’t looking to do anything. I was on the couch, retired, and the script popped up,” Murphy told a foreign media outlet, back when the film was released in 2016. “And I was like, ‘Hey, this is really emotional and written well.’”
Murphy, who usually does ‘four or five sittings, of 30-40 pages each’ to read his scripts, shared that he continued to finish the script in one go, barely pausing for a breath. “I just shot through it in like an hour and was sitting there crying like a punk,” he joked. “This doesn’t usually happen when I read stuff.”
Further sharing his experience of the project, the comedy veteran noted, “There was no pressure at all because there was no expectation because this isn’t a funny thing. The engine of this thing isn’t my sense of humour.”
Notably, Eddie Murphy-led drama film, ‘Mr. Church’, scripted by Susan McMartin and directed by Bruce Beresford, revolves around a cook who becomes a caretaker and father figure to three generations of women over the years.
While the title was a Box Office disappointment and also received generally negative reviews from critics, Murphy’s performance was mostly praised in his first release in four years.