‘Beverly Hills Cop’ Star Bronson Pinchot ‘Wasn’t Ready’ for Fame (Exclusive)

It’s no exaggeration to say that Bronson Pinchot’s life changed overnight.

He was an unknown 25-year-old actor struggling to make ends meet when Beverly Hills Cop He premiered in 1984. He only had about two minutes of screen time in Eddie Murphy’s action comedy – playing Serge, a gallery clerk with a thick accent – but he made a big impression on moviegoers and celebrities alike.

“Five seconds after the movie came out,” he says, “I met Carrie Fisher and she took me to a party at Rod Stewart’s house. I was talking to Elton John and I said, ‘What’s going on?'”

At the same time, he was walking near his Los Angeles apartment when a car full of teenagers excitedly approached him. “They jumped out and started causing trouble,” he recalls. “I went from poverty to people driving on the sidewalk. I wasn’t ready. Who’s ready for that?”

Forty years into his acting career, Pinchot, now 65, has plenty of remarkable anecdotes to tell. There was the time he accidentally walked into Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton’s makeup trailer on the set of The First Wives Cluband they insisted he hang out with them. Or the time comedy legend Lucille Ball told him he had a skill set from another era.

Although he remembers many of those moments fondly, Pinchot – whose fame soared even higher in 1986 thanks to his Emmy-nominated role as the naïve “cousin” Balki in the sitcom Fish Out of Water – Perfect strangers – has never been comfortable being the center of attention.

When it comes to show business, he said, “I don’t want any of the ‘show.'”

Like it or not, Pinchot is back in the spotlight with another notable role as Serge in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.

With his stylized speech—Pinchot based Serge on a Swiss caterer he worked for and an Israeli makeup artist he knew—and his exaggerated mannerisms, he’s just as hilarious this time around.

“It was a good ab workout, considering how much I was laughing,” says co-star Nasim Pedrad.

Although Pinchot, a Yale School of Drama graduate, once said he would not reprise the role, telling PEOPLE in 1985, “I don’t want it to be my image,” he is now older, wiser, happier — and leaves the haughty comments to Serge.

“I don’t even know who this guy really was,” Pinchot says when reminded of this old interview. “Every now and then I feel like I’m about to do something a little flashy and I think, ‘That’s the ghost of the kid I was.’”

It took Pinchot some time to find peace. Beverly Hills Cop, Perfect strangersaired from 1986 to 1993, bringing it into millions of homes around the world.

Everyone seemed to be falling in love with Balki, an immigrant from the fictional island of Mypos who lives with his cousin Larry (Mark Linn-Baker) in Chicago. But the attention annoyed Pinchot (who is of Italian and Russian descent).

He remembers going to a Hollywood juice bar and fans craning their necks to catch a glimpse of one. “My reaction was, ‘Really? Can’t you just be cool?’ I was all testy,” says Pinchot, whose late mother, Rosina, raised him and his three siblings alone in Southern California when his father left at an early age.

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The fan attention can be intense and frightening. “Everybody’s staring at you. And sometimes people are threatening to kill you. They’re like, ‘Do the character for my girlfriend.’ And you’re like, ‘I think I’ll just have my fruit salad, thanks.’ And then they’re like, ‘I’m going to have to kill you now.’ I mean, it’s a reality,” he says.

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Other encounters were more comical. Balki, Pinchot says, was a real person in the eyes of others. He recalls one airport where a stranger stood next to him and pointed out another celebrity. “He nudged me and said, ‘Balki, look. It’s Gregory Hines!’”

Pinchot is still not one to attract attention these days. He was even reluctant to attend the film’s premiere on June 20. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F in Los Angeles, but he went there after being encouraged by his team.

Pinchot jokes: “I received threatening emails and text messages from my manager saying, ‘You will “Be on the red carpet.”

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is on Netflix July 3rd.

For more on Bronson Pinchot, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.