Eddie Murphy Regrets Turning Down These Three Classic Movies

Eddie Murphy has had an enviable career by just about any measure. From becoming a wildly successful stand-up comedian to a prolific run as an actor spanning more than four decades, he's done it all. Well, not quite. Even though he's starred in massive hits like "Beverly Hills Cop" and "Coming to America," Murphy also missed out on a few would-be major roles over the years.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Murphy was asked if there were any movies he wished he'd been in during the course of his career as an actor, which dates back to "48 Hours" in 1982. Murphy then named off a trio of certifiably massive hit movies that exist without him in them. Here's what he had to say:

"Yeah, there's a couple of movies. 'Ghostbusters,' I was supposed to do 'Ghostbusters.' Didn't do that. And 'Rush Hour.' Didn't do that. Oh, and 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' Those are my big three 'wish I would have done' movies. They were huge giant hits."

Murphy is, indeed, correct. These movies were massive hits. "Ghostbusters" became a $1 billion franchise that is still going to this day. Murphy could have been Winston Zeddemore, played instead by Ernie Hudson in the franchise. At the time when the movie arrived in 1984, Murphy's career was just beginning to blossom. In fairness, he opted to star in "Beverly Hills Cop," which became a huge hit in its own right. It's hard to call that a bad decision. Though it's easy to see an actor wanting to be part of something like "Ghostbusters" all the same.

The other two movies, though? Those are probably a little more difficult to rectify in Murphy's mind, particularly "Rush Hour," which similarly birthed a huge franchise spanning multiple installments. 

Chris Tucker starred alongside Jackie Chan in "Rush Hour," which made $245 million at the box office in 1998 and spawned two sequels. There remains talk of a potential "Rush Hour 4" to this day.

Instead, Murphy starred in "Holy Man," which remains one of the biggest bombs of his career. Not to pour salt in a wound unnecessarily, but that's only rivaled by "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," which may well be the biggest box office bomb of all time. As for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?," the 1988 animated/live-action hybrid is a stone-cold classic. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, it was also a huge hit, pulling in $351 million at the box office in 1998. It was groundbreaking, going on to win several Academy Awards as well. Bob Hoskins wound up in the role of Eddie Valiant.

The unfortunate part is that, on paper, it's almost impossible to know how any of these movies were actually going to turn out. Any actor is just making decisions based on any number of variables that could change along the way, for better or worse. Will Smith famously turned down not just "The Matrix," but Christopher Nolan's "Inception" as well. Matt Damon also turned down "Avatar" and, with it, more money than any actor could have possibly imagined. It happens all the time.

But let's not cry too many tears for Murphy, as his career has worked out as well as any actor could hope for. His movies have grossed well over $7 billion at the box office, with gigantic hits like "Shrek 2" to his name among many others. This all firmly falls into the "you can't win 'em all" category.

A documentary about the actor, "Being Eddie," is streaming now on Netflix.