The legendary comedian talks to EW about opening up about his brother and his career highs and lows in “Being Eddie.”

Eddie Murphy reveals how late brother Charlie led to rare ‘totally vulnerable’ moment in new doc: ‘Just me’

The legendary comedian talks to EW about opening up about his brother and his career highs and lows in "Being Eddie."

By Jillian Sederholm

Jillian Sederholm

Jillian Sederholm is news director at *. *She has worked at EW for more than eight years. Jillian has previously worked as a reporter, social media editor, and homepage producer at NBC News, Digital First Media, Newsday, and *Random Lengths News.*

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November 10, 2025 4:30 p.m. ET

Brothers Charlie Murphy and Eddie Murphy arrive at Spike TV's 'Eddie Murphy: One Night Only' in 2012. Credit:

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

- *Being Eddie *chronicles Eddie Murphy's legendary career.

- The late Charlie Murphy is also featured in the documentary, leading to an emotional moment for the* Nutty Professor* star.

- "You get a glimpse of me totally vulnerable, just me," the comedian tells EW of the scene.

There's a rare moment in a new documentary on Eddie Murphy that catches the comedian being truly vulnerable after years of intentionally holding back.

Netflix's career-spanning *Being Eddie *(out Wednesday) features interviews with the legendary comedian and those who've been inspired by or worked with him, including Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Brian Grazer. Another presence looming large over the documentary is Murphy's older brother, *Chappelle's Show *storyteller Charlie, who died in 2017 from leukemia at age 57.**

Murphy tells * *it was a no-brainer for his late sibling to have a role in the doc.**

"There wasn't a decision that had to be made. [It's] about my life and he's a huge part of it, huge impact.... You have your dad and your big brother; those are your protectors. So he's a part of it," he says. "I think about Charlie every day, so he's a constant presence."

Charlie Murphy on 'Chappelle's Show'.

Comedy Central/Youtube

The late comedian is shown in archival footage (as well as in a notable childhood painting that the *Coming to America *star displays onscreen), proudly boasting about his little brother's accomplishments. Charlie is such a living, breathing part of *Being Eddie* that it comes as an emotional jolt later in the film when the *Nutty Professor* actor opens up about how much he misses him and shares his own thoughts about death.**

Murphy admits that, in watching the documentary back, he was struck by just how vulnerable he allowed himself to be in that moment.

"That's the only time ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever in 50 years of this business, in 50 movies where you really see me for a split second. You get a glimpse of me totally vulnerable, just me," he says of the scene. "It's like maybe two seconds of it, but it's a flicker there. It's enough that you feel it, and it's the first time they caught *me* on camera. That's what I get when I watch."**

Eddie Murphy and Charlie Murphy at the premiere of 'Norbit' in 2007.

Kevin Winter/Getty

The comedian reveals that the impetus for not allowing himself to be fully vulnerable publicly stems from his experiences doing interviews at the start of his career, after joining *Saturday Night Live *at just 19 years old and quickly blowing up into a blockbuster movie star over the next few years.

"Early in my career, they used to hammer me so much. I used to do print stuff, and in the early days, they used to really hammer me and really rip me," Murphy says. "I thought it was mean-spirited, and some of it was racist. So it put a bad taste in my mouth."

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The Oscar nominee acknowledges that he often felt like a lone wolf in those days.

"It was a whole different world when I blew up in 1980. It's a whole different America. We don't have Oprah yet. We don't have hip hop yet. We don't have Michael Jordan yet," he recalls. "So I'm kind of out there, and some of the old America racist s--- would creep into stuff, you know? So I stopped doing press really, really early on."

While his movies proved hugely popular with audiences, he recalls a cold reception from critics.

"They used to rip all my movies," he remembers. "*Beverly Hills Cop* was two thumbs way down, and *Coming to America* was two thumbs way down. And everything I would do, they would s--- on it."

Indeed, famed thumb-wagging film critic duo Siskel & Ebert mostly panned both movies, largely considered by the public (and EW) as two of Murphy's best.

John Ashton as Det. Sgt. John Taggart, Eddie Murphy as Det. Axel Foley, and Judge Reinhold as Det. William 'Billy' Rosewood in 'Beverly Hills Cop'.

On their review show, *At the Movies, *Roger Ebert called *Beverly Hills Cop *"a stunningly routine action picture that is redeemed only occasionally by Eddie Murphy," but "plays like a TV sitcom," while Gene Siskel said he was "very disappointed in it." The movie would go on to be No. 1 at the box office for 13 consecutive weeks. Meanwhile, *Coming to America — *the second highest-grossing film of 1988 domestically — Siskel found "very funny," but Ebert denounced as "hackneyed and so recycled out of 100 other fairy tales" with a "lethargic" performance by Murphy.

The star says he took it all in stride, often dismissing bad reviews as steeped in prejudice due to the all-too-rare instance of a Black-led film.

"It was never like something I would take to heart. It would be like, 'Oh, that's just some racist s---.' I was always able to dismiss it,' he says. "I never walked around with it. That's the way it was during those times."

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Critics aside, the actor recognizes the impact his success had on Hollywood.

"The reason things changed after *Beverly Hills Cop *was because the perception changed. It was like they never thought of a Black star's movie working all around the world, or a Black actor being the biggest, because this is a white man's business. A white male Hollywood made this for white males," he says. "The success of those movies made them go, *Hey, where there's one, there's another and another and another*."****

*Being Eddie* premieres on Netflix on Wednesday, Nov. 12. Watch the trailer above.**

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Movies”