Summary
- Eddie Murphy and John Landis had a fiery clash while filming Coming to America.
- The tension between Murphy and Landis escalated to a point where they were close to physical confrontation.
- Murphy and Landis' relationship has evolved today.
From the regal Prince Akeem in Coming 2 America to the wisecracking hustler Billy Ray Valentine in Trading Places, comedian Eddie Murphy's decades-long career has seen him embody a slew of truly unforgettable characters. While enviable, the now 62-year-old's career has not been completely void of controversy. Though many of the renowned comedian's scandals have revolved around his personal life, there were a few times when the chaos followed him straight to work.
Back in 1988, while filming his mega-hit romantic comedy Coming To America, the father of ten found himself tangled in a fiery clash with his oldest collaborator and friend, John Landis. With their scandal spilling over into the tabloids, it felt as though Murphy and Landis would be feuding forever. Decades later, has the duo buried the hatchet or are they still locked in a showdown?
Eddie Murphy Hired John Landis To Direct Coming To America
Renowned comedian Eddie Murphy has been embroiled in an array of scandals in his decades-long career. However, none of the Trading Places star's controversies have been as sensational or inextricably linked to his work as his 1988 blowout with John Landis.
The whole debacle kicked off when Murphy boldly enlisted Landis for his 1988 blockbuster, Coming to America, disregarding the renowned director's then-ongoing Twilight Zone debacle.
“I was gonna direct Coming to America myself, but I knew that Landis had just done three f**ked-up pictures in a row and that his career was hanging by a thread after the Twilight Zone trial,” Murphy would later tell RollingStone of his decision to hire Landis. “I figured the guy was nice to me when I, did Trading Places, so I’d give him a shot.”
But the kind gesture didn’t exactly have the effect Murphy had hoped for. According to Murphy, Landis had been harboring a grudge against him for not attending his Twilight Zone trial.
“John always resented that I hadn’t gone to his Twilight Zone trial,” Murphy revealed in his now infamous expletive-ridden Playboy interview.
“I never knew that; I thought we were cool. But he’d been harboring it for a year. Every now and then, he would make little remarks, like, ‘You didn’t help me out; you don’t realize how close I was to going to jail.’ I never paid any mind.”
Eddie Murphy And John Landis Had An Explosive Argument While Filming Coming To America
With such potent discontent simmering under the surface, it wasn't long before Landis and Murphy found themselves in a nasty confrontation. Following an incident where Landis allegedly started screaming expletives on set, the duo found themselves perilously close to coming to blows.
“We didn’t come to blows. Personalities didn’t mesh,” Murphy revealed in his 1989 interview with RollingStone. “I grabbed him, and he thought I was playing. So he tried to grab my balls, and I pushed him away. But I wasn’t kidding. He was doing some silly s**t that made me mad. He directed me in Trading Places when I was just starting out as a kid, but he was still treating me like a kid five year later during Coming to America. And I hired him to direct the movie!”
Following the explosive confrontation, Landis allegedly went to Murphy's trailer and revealed exactly why he'd been so incensed. “His voice was trembling,” Murphy later revealed to Playboy. “And it all came out: that he didn’t think I was talented, that the only reason he did Coming to America was for money, that he didn’t respect me since I hadn’t gone to his trial.”
Even after realizing how much it had upset Landis, Murphy still had no regrets about not attending the director's scandalous Twilight Zone trial.
“I don’t want to say who was guilty or who was innocent,” he told Playboy. “If you’re directing a movie and two kids get their heads chopped off at f**king twelve o’clock at night when there ain’t supposed to be kids working, and you said, ‘Action!’ then you have some sort of responsibility. So my principles wouldn’t let me go down there and sit in court.”
Did John Landis And Eddie Murphy Ever Resolve Their Coming To America Feud?
Still reeling from the unfortunate incident, Eddie Murphy attempted, for the first time in his life, to drown his sorrows in alcohol.
“I drank once. While making Coming to America, I had some weirdness with John Landis, who was directing the movie,” he told RollingStone in 1989. “We had a tussling confrontation, and when I went home, Arsenio [Hall] gave me some alcohol to settle me down. I thought a drink might help, so I drank a whole quart of Absolut vodka. I won the Most Vomit Award. I was bent over the toilet for hours. That was the first and last time I’ll ever drink.”
From Murphy’s expletive-ridden Playboy interview, it seemed quite likely that he and Landis would be feuding forever. However, as the Norbit star later revealed in a 2011 interview with RollingStone, the feud didn't last quite as long as some might've imagined.
“I had lunch with John about a month ago. We did the ill-fated Beverly Hills Cop III after Coming to America. Yeah, I’m cool with John, I did some great movies with him. Rarely do I have any sh**tiness that stays sh**ty. I either resolve it or walk away. Rarely do I let sh*t linger.”
So thoroughly buried was the infamous feud that the Dolemite Is My Name star even doled out some unexpected praise for Landis' directorial prowess. “John Landis is on you more than any other director I’ve ever worked with,” he said. “He’ll tell you how to read the line, and if he wants you to do a physical stunt, he’ll show you. He really gets in there.”
