Everybody knows Eddie Murphy as a comedy legend. He’s appeared in some funny, iconic movies over the years, including Shrek, The Nutty Professor, Mulan, and many others. Even Murphy’s dramatic performance in the 2002 film Dreamgirls was well-received, garnering him a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also has a Grammy and Emmy attached to his name, making him just two awards shy of joining the prestigious EGOT club (entertainers who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards).
But what many people don’t realize is that Eddie Murphy came awfully close to stepping outside his comfort zone and playing a famous horror villain. Here’s the story of how Eddie Murphy almost played Candyman.
Eddie Murphy’s Rise to Stardom
It was comic legends like Richard Pryor, Peter Sellers, Robin Williams, and Charlie Chaplin who inspired Eddy Murphy’s decision to pursue comedy. Like many great comedians, he got his start on the sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s. His characters, such as a morose Gumby and an adult version of Little Rascals character Buckwheat, turned Murphy into a star. His casting is largely credited for reviving SNL at the time.
Again, like many great comedians, Murphy leveraged his SNL success into a Hollywood career. He made his motion picture debut in the buddy cop action-comedy 48 Hrs. with Nick Nolte. Fun fact: Nolte became too ill to host SNL, so Murphy had to take over. He’s the only cast member to host while still being a regular. Despite its success at the time, 48 Hrs. isn’t exactly a movie that people talk about today. The rest of his filmography in the 1980s, however, includes some of Eddy Murphy’s funniest and most iconic movies.
Right after 48 Hrs, he appeared in Trading Places with fellow SNL star Dan Aykroyd. And right after that, Murphy starred in perhaps his most famous role: as street-smart Axel Foley in Beverly Hill Cops, whose tremendous success spawned a series of films. In the late 80s, he starred alongside the late James Earl Jones in the comedy classic Coming To America, which just got a sequel in 2021. By the 1990s, Eddie Murphy was a bonafide star.
Eddie Murphy Was the First Choice for Candyman, But He Was Too Expensive
At the height of his popularity, Eddie Murphy was considered for the lead role in a small, gothic supernatural horror film called Candyman. According to urban legend, if you speak his name five times in front of a mirror, the ghost of Candyman will materialize and kill you, sometimes using bees as his weapon of choice. The script was based on Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden,” though Bernard Rose, the writer and director of Candyman, shifted the setting from Liverpool to Chicago to capture the Windy City’s architecture and racial prejudice.
Rose’s screenplay attracted considerable attention in Hollywood. Eddie Murphy was Rose’s original choice for the villainous role of Candyman. But the filmmakers couldn’t afford the actor’s high salary at the time.
Murphy’s Unaffordable Price Tag Turned Out to Be a Blessing
When it became clear that Eddie Murphy wasn’t going to happen, Rose cast Tony Todd as the role of Candyman. And it turned out to be a great decision. Todd’s Candyman became a horror legend, especially when people found out that the actor endured 23 bee stings during filming (don’t feel too bad; he was paid $1,000 for every sting he received). Todd even came up with the backstory for Candyman in the movie: he was tortured by a mob, covered with honey, and stung to death by bees.
The movie’s success birthed a franchise that includes three sequels: 1995’s Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, 1999’s Candyman 3: Day of the Dead, and 2021’s Candyman. But per usual, none of them quite capture the magic of the original. Over 30 years later, Candyman is known as a horror classic and appears in many reputable lists of best horror films.