Eddie Murphy has never been shy about admitting when one of his films missed the mark, and in a new interview with Complex, the comedy icon revealed one of his biggest “what if” moments in Hollywood: passing on Rush Hour to star in Holy Man.
“And did I say Holy Man is one of my worst movies?” Murphy said, laughing. “That’s the movie that I did instead of Rush Hour.”
Murphy explained that he was presented with two scripts at the time, the first being Rush Hour, the now-classic 1998 action-comedy starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.
“They came to me… it was two scripts. It was Rush Hour… It’s going to be action-comedy and you’re going to be in [with] Jackie Chan and it’s action, summertime, running, all this physical stuff,” Murphy recalled. “And this other one was you in a robe in Miami. I was like, this is an easy choice.”
The “easy choice,” however, turned out to be the wrong one. Holy Man, which co-starred Jeff Goldblum, was a commercial and critical flop, earning just $12 million at the box office.
“Then we went to Miami and made a horrendous film,” Murphy admitted bluntly. “But it was easy.”
Meanwhile, Rush Hour went on to become a global phenomenon, grossing over $244 million worldwide, spawning two sequels with a potential fourth film on the way, and cementing Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan as one of the most beloved buddy-comedy duos in film history.
While Murphy’s career hardly suffered, the late ‘90s saw him in hits like Dr. Dolittle, The Nutty Professor II, and Shrek, the revelation offers a rare peek into how even Hollywood legends can misread a script’s potential.
