Netflix's "Being Eddie"documentary offers viewers "a really genuine, little glimpse of me, for real,"Eddie Murphytells USA TODAY.
The Oscar nominee compares the experience of sitting fordirector Angus Wall's film(streaming Nov. 12) to "going through an old photo album with everybody." The 1 hour and 43-minute documentary − which includes interviews with Dave Chappelle,Pete Davidson, Jamie Foxx, Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, Tracee Ellis Ross and Jerry Seinfeld – shows the first spark of Murphy's career: a ventriloquist doll that served as the perfect vehicle for his animated voices.
Television captivated Murphy from a young age.
"As a kid, I'd get a blanket, go throw it over the dining room table, so it was hanging down like a tent, put the TV under there, and I'd watch all day long," Murphy says in "Being Eddie." He remembers, years later, the days of "trying to roll around like Elvis" in leather suits while performing stand-up and relives his box office hits and misses.
Here are the most notable moments from the documentary:
Eddie Murphy loathes funerals.His plan to spare loved ones 'that trauma' after his death.
'I was hurt': Eddie Murphy explains why he avoided 'SNL' and decided to return
Murphy joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" in 1980, at 19. He left in 1984 to pursue movies, but not every one hit. 1995's "Vampire in Brooklyn" got him "a little off-track," Murphy can admit. But it still stung whenDavid Spade included Murphyin his sharp-tongued "SNL" bit "Hollywood Minute."
With a photo of Murphy on the screen, Spade jabbed, "Look, children, it's a falling star. Make a wish." The audience groaned, and Murphy admits, "I was hurt."
"It's like your alma mater taking a shot at you," he says. He believes a similar joke about an "SNL" cast member's career wouldn't fly today.
"The joke had went through all of those channels that a joke has to go through" to get on the air, Murphy says. "That's what y'all think of me? … And that's why I didn't go back for years."
Eventually, he decided the show could be an opportunity to highlight his talents.He returned to hostit in 2019.
"That little friction that I had with 'SNL' was 35 years ago. I don't have no smoke with no David Spade," he says. "It was like, 'Hey, let me go to 'SNL' and smooth that all out.' And I did."
Legendary comedian and Hollywood star Eddie Murphy is the subject of new Netflix documentary "Being Eddie," streaming Nov. 12. What follows are four exclusive first-look photos from the movie, as well as a taste of Murphy's screen work." style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Eddie Murphy (right, with Judge Reinhold) scored an early Hollywood hit playing Detroit detective Axel Foley in the 1984 action comedy "Beverly Hills Cop."" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Eddie Murphy brought back his classic 1980s character Mister Robinson – a spoof of Mister Rogers – during a 2019 hosting gig on "Saturday Night Live."" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> 
Eddie Murphy (left) and Pete Davidson play armored truck drivers who get embroiled in a high-stakes heist in Murphy's latest comedy, "The Pickup."" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> See exclusive pics of Eddie Murphy from Netflix's 'Being Eddie' documentary
Legendary comedian and Hollywood star Eddie Murphy is the subject of new Netflix documentary "Being Eddie," streaming Nov. 12. What follows are four exclusive first-look photos from the movie, as well as a taste of Murphy's screen work.
Eddie Murphy reveals thoughts on the 2007 Oscars: I could've 'lost at home'
Murphy believes that hispoorly received comedy "Norbit,"released in the final days of voting, muddied his path to the Oscar stage laid in "Dreamgirls." Alan Arkin took home the best supporting actor Oscar for his performance in "Little Miss Sunshine." The loss, Murphy says, is not what irked him, thoughhe left the show after the award was announced.
"I would usually not go to award shows," Murphy says in "Being Eddie." "I'm like, 'These motherf------ made me come all the way down. I could've f------ lost at home.'"
"I'm never like, 'Oh, I didn't win.' I'm like, 'Hey! Don't make me come down here for nothing.' It's always wonderful to win stuff. But if I don't win ... I'm still Eddie in the morning."
Why Eddie Murphy avoids awards shows:'Everybody's dressed and acting and fake'
Eddie Murphy wonders if Yul Brynner propositioned him on his birthday at Studio 54
Murphy rang in his 21st birthday at New York's famed Studio 54.
"Yul Brynner, from 'The Ten Commandments,' he was with his wife (Kathy Lee Brynner), and he was like, "How would you like to go back to my apartment with my wife and I and party?' " Murphy recalls. "And I was like, 'Nah, I'm cool.' "
Murphy says with age, he's begun to wonder if it was an invitation to dally with Kathy while Brynner watched.
"And now I wish I would've went," Murphy says, because it would've made for a better story.
USA TODAY has reached out to a representative for the Brynner family for comment.
Eddie Murphy didn't plan to walk away from stand-up: 'It just kind of gradually stopped'
Murphy reveals he never made a conscious decision to leave the stand-up stage.
"It just kind of gradually stopped," he says. "I do know that it stopped being as much fun, and that's why I stopped going to the clubs like I used to."
He resented stories and critiques that would follow a set, polished or not. "If I would go up at a club, the next day it would be in the paper that I was at a club and what I was talking about, and they'd be critiquing it already, and it'd be like a little piece of an idea," he says. "And I remember I didn't like that feeling, so I stopped working out as much … before we knew it, decades had gone by."
And when he catches bits of his stand-up shows, "Eddie Murphy Delirious" (1983) and "Eddie Murphy Raw" (1987), he says, "It feels like a different person," as with time we all evolve.
Eddie Murphy avoided hard drugs: 'I wasn't even curious'
Murphy says when he would party with "Super Freak" singer Rick James in the '80s, he would leave before people started doing drugs. "I was never curious about it," Murphy says. "I never wanted to go in there and check it out or nothing. I just wasn't with it."
During his first season of "SNL," Murphy says he accompanied John Belushi and Robin Williams to a blues bar.
"They put some blow on the table, and I'm standing there (between) two heroes," Murphy says. "I wasn't even curious. I was just not with it. I've never even tried cocaine or touched cocaine ... I don't drink. I don't smoke cigarettes."
Murphy says he was 30 before he smoked his first joint.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Eddie Murphy documentary's big reveals about 'SNL,' standup, fame
