“I forced myself to stop”

Eddie Murphy explains why he gave up his signature laugh.

In a recent interview with CBR while promoting Beverly Hills Cop: Axel FThe 63-year-old actor responded to a question about the disappearance of his character Axel Foley’s unique laugh in the new sequel.

Murphy, who first gained fame as Saturday Night Live cast member in early 80s before 1984 Beverly Hills Cop, He said he stopped laughing like that decades ago in response to the number of people who imitated him by doing impersonations of him.

“It wasn’t Axel’s laugh, it was my laugh. In the ’80s, I was like, ‘I don’t want to be known for my laugh.’ I noticed some people were doing impressions of me and that’s all they were doing, they were laughing,” Murphy explained.

“I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to stop laughing like that.’ I forced myself to stop laughing like that, which is really unnatural. Now I don’t laugh like that anymore.”

He continued: “The impressions and just, they were overdoing it. Even still, if you say, ‘Do an impression,’ they’ll do this laugh and they’ll talk like the donkey (of Shrek.) If you say, “Do Eddie Murphy,” they say, “Hey, how are you?” That’s not me.

Murphy returns as Detective Axel Foley in Axel Fa sequel that reunites him with original stars Judge Reinhold, Bronson Pinchot and John Ashton for another California adventure. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Taylour Paige, Paul Reiser and Kevin Bacon also star in the film, which comes out almost exactly 40 years after the first installment hit theaters and 30 years after the last installment.

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Speaking with CBR, Murphy said it took so long to make a fourth Beverly Hills Cop film because he was waiting for the writers to develop a high-quality story that he could work on.

“I always tell writers, when they write something, give me something solid, a solid story and I’ll make it comedy. I’ll make it funny.” Beverly Hills Cop “The script wasn’t funny, it was an action movie with Sylvester Stallone,” Murphy said.

“If you give me something that an action star has, I’m not going to play it like Stallone, I’m not going to play it like Tom Cruise, I’m going to play it like me to add that fun element.”

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