Hollywood legend Eddie Murphy recently opened up about two surprising pieces of advice he received early in his career—one from acting icon Sidney Poitier and another from music legend James Brown.
During an appearance on the acclaimed Number One on the Call Sheet, Murphy recalled when Poitier gave him blunt guidance about transitioning into dramatic roles. At the time, Murphy was considering playing Alex Haley in a Malcolm X biopic directed by Norman Jewison, based on The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
“Early on, Sidney said—I don’t know if it was an insult or a compliment, or something,” Murphy began. “They were talking about doing Malcolm X… and they approached me about playing Alex Haley. Somewhere around that same time, I bumped into Sidney Poitier at something. And I asked him, ‘Yeah, I’m thinking about playing Alex Haley.’ And Sidney Poitier said [imitating Poitier’s Bahamian accent], ‘You are not Denzel, and you are not Morgan. You are a breath of fresh air. And don’t f— with that.’ And I was like, ‘What?’”
Get this, Murphy also shared an amusing yet financially questionable tip from James Brown, whom he famously impersonated on Saturday Night Live. The Godfather of Soul advised him to clean up his comedy act and suggested a peculiar way to protect his earnings.
“James Brown told me… he asked me, he told me I should stop cursing,” Murphy said, mimicking Brown’s raspy voice. “‘You want to be in this business for a long time, you should stop that cursing.’ And he said, ‘You think you got a million dollars?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I do.’ And he said, ‘You ain’t got no million dollars.’ He said, ‘If you do got millions of dollars, you take it and bury it in the woods.’”
Murphy laughed as only Eddie could laugh. he continued, “And I said, ‘Why bury my money in the woods?’ He said, ‘The government will take it from you. So bury it.’ And I said, ‘But can’t the government take your land?’ And he said, ‘But they won’t know where the money is.’ That’s a true story. That’s the kind of advice I used to get.”
Reflecting on his early fame, Murphy acknowledged that his rapid success as a young Black entertainer was unprecedented in Hollywood. “I was in uncharted waters,” he said. “For Sidney and all those guys, when I showed up, it was something kind of new. They didn’t have a reference for me.”
Despite Poitier’s initial skepticism about dramatic roles, Murphy later proved his range, earning an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in Dreamgirls (2006).
Smart move, Eddie. We pay with experience, but advice is free. Sometimes.