Eddie Murphy has revealed in the Apple TV+ documentary Number One on the Call Sheet: Black Leading Men in Hollywood,” how the late Sidney Poitier gave him some unexpected career advice.
The renowned actor and comedian claimed that Sidney Poitier advised him against playing author Alex Haley in Malcolm X.
Murphy claims that it all began when he was informed that “Norman Jewison was the one putting it together” and that “they were talking about doing ‘Malcolm X.’
The actor went on to reveal that:
“They were going to use The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley, and they approached me about playing Alex Haley.
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“Around that same time, I bumped into Sidney Poitier at something, and I asked him, ‘Yeah, I’m considering playing Alex Haley!’ And Sidney Poitier said:
‘You are not Denzel [Washington], and you are not Morgan [Freeman]. You are a breath of fresh air, and don’t fuck with that!’”
The film, at the time, was to be directed by Norman Jewison but was directed by Spike Lee instead.
Spike Lee’s Malcolm X starred Denzel Washington as the civil rights icon, with the Man on Fire star even receiving an Oscar nomination for the part.
Eddie Murphy went on to say that at the time, he wasn’t sure what Poitier’s remark about not being like Morgan and Denzel meant.
Murphy remarked, “I wasn’t sure if it was a compliment or an insult. ‘I thought, ‘What?'”
He continued by saying that his career was in “uncharted waters” as a Black male actor.
“For Sidney and all those guys, when I showed up, it was something kind of new,”
Murphy said. “They didn’t have a reference for me; they couldn’t give me advice because I was 20, 21 years old, and my audience was the mainstream, all of everywhere.
My movies [were] all around the world, and they had never had that with a young Black person.
So nobody could give me advice. Everything broke really big and really fast.”
