Eddie Murphy Says He Made At Least Two Movies Worse Than ‘Norbit’

It’s not that Eddie Murphy believes his 2007 comedy Norbit is some kind of masterpiece. But on the all-time list of Murphy duds, he says, it does not even make his bottom three. 

“I love Norbit,” Murphy told Complex 360 with Speedy Morman. “I wrote Norbit with my brother Charlie, and we think Norbit is fun. To this day, I like Norbit. There’s stuff in Norbit that makes me laugh.”

But part of the “It’s a terrible movie!” reaction may have been timing. “You know, Norbit came out right after I got the Oscar nomination (for Dreamgirls),” Murphy said. “There were articles like, ‘How can he get an Oscar? He did this.’” 

Norbit was a goofy comedy, while Dreamgirls was an Oscar-bait movie. The stark contrast between the two films likely made Norbit, which earned multiple Razzie nominations, seem even worse. Murphy “won” Razzies for Worst Actor, Worst Actress and even Worst Actor of the Decade. “Come on, man,” laughed Murphy. “The shit ain’t that bad.”

There are at least two other movies that Murphy would put on his Mount Flopmore ahead of Norbit: The Adventures of Pluto Nash and Holy Man. To make matters worse, Murphy turned down the Chris Tucker role in Rush Hour to do Holy Man. 

The studio came to Murphy with two scripts. “It’s Rush Hour and it’s going to be action comedy and you’re going to be with Jackie Chan and it’s action, summertime, running, all this physical stuff,” Murphy remembered. “And this other one (Holy Man) was you in a robe in Miami. I was like, ‘It’s a no-brainer.’ And we went to Miami and made a horrendous film.”

One other one that got away? “I was the original for Driving Miss Daisy. That was actually developed for me,” he explained. “I wasn’t doing shit like that back then. I was like, I ain’t driving no Miss Daisy.”

Back to Norbit, critics agree that he’s made at least two worse films, according to Rotten Tomatoes. Reviewers rank Norbit as Murphy’s third worst, ahead of The Adventures of Pluto Nash and 2012’s A Thousand Words, which accomplished the difficult feat of a zero percent rating.

Critics are much harsher than Murphy’s fans. The recently deceased Beach Boy Brian Wilson said Norbit was his favorite movie of 2007. More than half (53 percent) of movie-goers on Rotten Tomatoes gave Norbit a positive review, and they showed up at theaters as well, making it Murphy’s 14th film to open at #1. The “terrible” comedy earned more than $150 million at the global box office, allowing Eddie and his brother Charlie to laugh all the way to the bank.