In the pantheon of great Eddie Murphy movies, and there are a lot of them, one of the absolute best has to be Coming to America. It’s a hilarious movie, and one of Murphy’s favorites of his own work. But actually making it was no joke for Eddie Murphy, who had a famously fraught relationship with director John Landis, one that apparently could have doomed the movie, had it not been for co-star Arsenio Hall.
Hall recently spoke with Esquire about his recently published memoir, in which he relays the story about the battle between Eddie Murphy and John Landis. Hall says he was in a hotel room in New York, apparently preparing for a threesome with two lady friends, when he received a call from the President of Paramount Pictures, who needed Hall to play peacemaker. Hall explained…
He says, ‘Go find your friend. Do you know what happened?’ And I said, ‘No, this is my off day. I’m not there today.’ And he says, ‘I think Eddie hurt John Landis.’ And I’m like, ‘What do you mean, hurt his feelings? What’d he say to him?’ [Ned says,] ‘No, no, no. I think there was some physical [altercation]. And so I called Eddie’s cousin, Ray, and I said, ‘Yo, what happened today?’ And he said, ‘Director was talking shit and had to pay.’
It’s somewhat surprising these two men found themselves here, considering Murphy had fought to get Landis hired to direct the movie. Following the tragic and fatal accident on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie, Landis had had some trouble finding work. Since the two had worked together on Trading Places, Murphy wanted to help him out.
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Obviously a situation like this, where a film’s director and star are having issues, is bad news for any production. So understandably, the studio would want it dealt with immediately. It seems Arsenio was elected pacemaker, and despite his plans, he jumped in his car to go meet with Eddie, bringing with him something he hoped would mellow out the actor. Hall continued…
I’m like, ‘I’m coming. I’m coming.’ You know, like I’m Superman or something. I get dressed. I get a car that Ned Tanen had waiting for me downstairs. And I went to Englewood, New Jersey, with a baggie of joints. And I walked in, and Eddie told me what happened, you know, and that it had happened outside, I think, maybe in front of the McDowells’ set. I guess there were fans, and Eddie’s signing autographs, and John Landis said something to him in front of these people. One of those things where if they were private, it might have gone down different, but you front me off in front of all these people, and I think that was the issue.
Murphy spoke with Rolling Stone about his altercation with Landis back in the ‘80s. While he says the two didn’t come to blows, they apparently did grab each other before Murphy stormed off. Hall attempted to get his friend to calm down by offering both alcohol and marijuana, despite the fact that Murphy never touched either substance. Hall said…
My solution to the problem was [pretends to light up joint]. ‘That’s crazy man.’ [Pretends to pass the joint] And [Eddie] says, ‘I don’t smoke. [Get] the fuck away from me with that shit. And I said, ‘Let me make you a drink’. He said, ‘I don’t drink.’ You know, I don’t drink. Who are you? I poured some orange juice and some vodka in a glass, and we’re talking. We’re just talking. And then we start getting away from that and just laughing.
According to Hall, this wasn’t just a personality conflict. He said John Landis had decided to quit the movie as a result of what had happened. This obviously would have been a serious blow to the film and might have prevented it from ever being finished. Murphy was so upset that he tried alcohol for the first time in his life. Hall said…
He has his first drink. I’m the devil. And, eventually, I get him to hit a joint and, before you know it, this is when I knew that we were going to have peace.
Eddie Murphy has confirmed that this drink with Arsenio was the first alcohol he ever had. He apparently had more than one drink and ended up getting so sick that he never drank again.
According to Hall, it was after getting intoxicated that Murph said he had to get the movie back on track, and while Hall doesn’t know exactly what happened after that, the two men put aside their differences and finished Coming to America. They would ultimately work together again on Beverly Hills Cop III as well.