Eddie Murphy revealed that he stopped using his iconic laugh after fans and comedians began mimicking it during the peak of his career. In a recent interview with CBR, Murphy explained that he felt "forced" to abandon his signature laugh due to the public "making too much of it." This laugh, which gained attention from his performance in the original Beverly Hills Cop film, was his natural laugh, not one created for comedic effect.
"Not Axel’s laugh, it was my laugh," the New York native clarified. "That was my laugh." However, Murphy noted that the attention around his distinctive chuckle soon took on a life of its own, with many impressionists focusing on that specific trait. "In the ’80s, I was like, I don’t wanna be known for a laugh," he said. "I noticed some people would do an impression of me, and if somebody was doing an impression, that’s all they did was they’d laugh."
To divert attention from his laugh, the 63-year-old began altering it, a process he says has been successful to this day. "It was like, you know what? I’m gonna stop laughing [like that]," Murphy explained. "I forced myself to stop laughing [like that], which is really an unnatural thing. You laugh and say, okay, I have to stop laughing like that. And now, I don’t laugh like that anymore."
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Eddie Murphy is set to reprise his role as Axel Foley in the upcoming film Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, the fourth installment in the popular Beverly Hills Cop franchise. The film will feature a cast including Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kevin Bacon, with Mark Molloy directing.
