For the first time, Eddie Murphy is looking back on the extraordinary journey of his career — and looking ahead at what’s still to come.
Being Eddie, a forthcoming documentary premiering on Netflix Nov. 12, chronicles the Oscar-nominated actor’s meteoric rise from teen comic phenom to Saturday Night Live breakout and stand-up supernova to box-office titan. In this intimate portrait, Murphy opens up his home and dives deep into his groundbreaking career of nearly 50 years and counting.
Said director and two-time Oscar winner Angus Wall (The Social Network, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button): “There is no one else like him. Nobody. He’s been famous longer than just about anyone alive, and he’s never lost who he is. He has survived it all with grace. How did he do that? What guides him? We chase all of these questions with him.”
In the documentary, Murphy discusses entertaining three generations of fans with a filmography that spans comedy, action, drama, animation, musicals, and family fare. Friends, co-stars, directors, and fellow comics including Adam Sandler, Arsenio Hall, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Jamie Foxx, Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin Hart, Pete Davidson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Tracy Morgan offer insight into Murphy’s singular life and career, and the undeniable influence of his breakout Saturday Night Live era, his stand-up films like Raw, ’80s megahits Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, and Trading Places, ’90s classics like The Nutty Professor, the Shrek franchise in the 2000s, and his Oscar-nominated performance in Dreamgirls, among many others.
“There’s a great clip of Eddie on a talk show early on in his career, talking about how he’s always been able to do impersonations and different voices. He talks about how his mom used to ask him, ‘Who’s Eddie? What voice is Eddie’s voice?’ This movie answers that question,” Wall said. “Eddie has played a lot of different characters over the last 40-plus years, but he has never played himself onscreen before. He opens up his world and his heart and I think people are going to really enjoy spending time with him.”
Being Eddie is produced by John Davis, John Fox, Charisse Hewitt-Webster, Terry Leonard, and Kent Kubena.
Take a first look at the documentary in the trailer above.
