Eddie Murphy Regrets Not Starring In Two Of The '80s Best Movies

Actors regretting passing on what later proved to be juicy movie roles is nothing new. Sometimes you read a script and just don't understand the material, and other times it could be as simple as picking another project instead. Eddie Murphy, the legendary comedian and actor who had a meteoric rise to stardom in the 1980s, is no exception. After exploding onto the scene as one of the greatest "Saturday Night Live" cast members in the show's history, he made the jump to the big screen with a scene-stealing turn in "48 Hours" and achieved true superstardom with "Trading Places" and "Beverly Hills Cop."

Even an actor on one of the hottest streaks in cinema history is going to make a few poor choices, though. Ask Murphy himself about it, and he'll point to a couple of projects he regrets not being a part of during that era of his career. One of them, pretty famously, is "Ghostbusters." Of course, that movie went through several iterations of potential cast members, starting with its original inception as a vehicle for Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. For Murphy, this was a case of having to make a choice, given that when "Ghostbusters" eventually went into production, he was already signed on for "Beverly Hills Cop." As he told Jimmy Fallon in a 2019 interview, he regrets not being in "Ghostbusters" but it's hard to argue he made a bad career choice, given the smash success of "Beverly Hills Cop."

But remember when we said sometimes actors just don't get the concept? Well, Murphy has one of those, and it turns out, opting not to be a part of it is one of his biggest career regrets. That movie was "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"

It's hard to imagine any version of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" without Bob Hoskins in his iconic performance as Eddie Valiant, the detective tasked with finding out the film's titular question. Valiant is gruff and has a strong dislike for cartoons, making for a reluctant odd couple partnership with Roger. It's actually a pretty similar dynamic to the one Murphy shared with Nick Nolte in "48 Hours," so it wouldn't be difficult to imagine Murphy sliding into the film. Being the comedic foil to an angry, older detective was right in Murphy's wheelhouse in the '80s.

Only, Murphy wasn't being targeted to lend his voice and comedic talents to the rabbit. No, he was offered the part of the hardboiled detective. We're guessing the character would have been reshaped a bit to better fit Murphy's talents, but it's still interesting — and a little difficult — to imagine him as Eddie. But that wasn't the reason he turned it down. Instead, it was because he just couldn't wrap his head around blending animated characters with live-action. As he told Fallon:

"I was gonna be the Bob Hoskins dude. I was like; 'What? Animation and people?! That sounds like b***s*** to me!' Now every time I see it, I feel like an idiot."

These days, mixing animation with live-action is old hat. But at the time, the film was revolutionary for the way director Robert Zemeckis seamlessly made the two mediums work together. With that in mind, it's hard to hold Murphy's hesitancy against him. After all, who could have known the film would one day wind up being added to the National Film Registry? As we've seen since, live-action and animation don't always work so well, either. Just ask Brad Pitt.