“Everytime I see it I feel like an Idiot”: Not Ghostbuster But Saying No to a $351 Million Comedy Movie is Eddie Murphy’s Biggest Regret in Hollywood

Eddie Murphy has made sure to don some of the most fan-favorite roles throughout his star-studded career, with his iconic Beverly Hills Cop role of Axel Foley ranking as one of his best ones to date. Even then, despite holding some really significant titles to his role like Coming to America and Trading Places, the actor holds some serious regrets about the roles he turned down.

While one of the roles that he was offered but couldn’t take on included one from the critically acclaimed Ghostbusters film franchise, it wasn’t the only one. As it turns out, one other $351 million comedy movie that he was offered but ended up turning down eventually became one of his biggest regrets in Hollywood. This movie was 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Eddie Murphy Deeply Regrets Turning Down Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Within a few years after breaking out as an actor in the 1980s, Eddie Murphy had already earned his breakthrough via projects among the likes of Trading Places (1983) and Beverly Hills Cop (1984). During that same period, he was also offered the critically beloved Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

However, instead of taking it on as an opportunity to learn something new through a mix of animation and people in the movie, the Norbit star ended up turning it down. And ever since then, he has been regretting his decision.

As Murphy himself confessed about his regret during one of his appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon:

The only movie I ever turned down that became a big hit was that “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” Yeah, I was going to be the Bob Hoskins dude.

But the fact that there was going to be animation and live-action mixed in the movie just didn’t sit well with The Nutty Professor star, thus, he decided against starring in it. As he continued to say:

I was like, “What? Animation and people. That sounds like bull—t to me.” Now every time I see it, I feel like an idiot.

Thanks to the brilliant storyline and Hoskins’ exceptional performance, the film even went on to become a critics’ favorite, earning a 96% rating on the Tomatometer along with a stunning box office score of $351.5 million (via The Numbers).

Eddie Murphy Let Ghostbusters Go But Scored Another Major Role

During the same interview, Murphy also talked about how he was offered a role in the Ghostbusters franchise, which is another one of those incredibly famous franchises in the industry. As Jimmy Fallon pointed out, “Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wanted [Murphy] to be one of the original Ghostbusters.”

However, Murphy had to let that one go as well due to one other role he scored instead: Axel Foley in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, whom he has been flawlessly playing ever since; even in the recently released Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.

That said, even though he did lose the chance to become a part of the $1.14 billion franchise (via The Numbers), the actor instead managed to establish his own successful action franchise Beverly Hills Cop led by him.

You can watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit? on Disney+ and Ghostbusters on Netflix.