The decades-spanning career of Eddie Murphy has seen him become one of the biggest comedy icons in history, from his early days as a raunchy standup to one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. It has forced the Beverly Hills Cops star to change some things over the years, though, and that includes one of his most recognizable features from his younger days on screen.
Laugh On
While speaking about returning to the screen as Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Murphy shared some insight into how both he and the role has changed since his first time as the fast-mouthed Detroit cop in 1984. This included teaching himself how to stop laughing his now iconic laugh heard in many of Murphy's films during the 1980s, according to CinemaBlend, due to how he felt audiences looked at the laugh.
“That was my real laugh,” Murphy told CinemaBlend. “And then I realized, ‘Oh, they're laughing at my laugh.’ And then it became like, you know, all I have to do is do that laugh and they would laugh. And it was like, ‘Oh, no.’ And I really made myself stop laughing. Like, I don't laugh like that anymore. It's a strange thing as a human being, to have to adjust something that is natural. I can't laugh like that.”
While Murphy's iconic laugh could be heard all over the 1980s, most fans have come to associated it with his star-making role as Axel Foley in the original Beverly Hills Cop. The actor and comedian can be heard making that similar laugh in its sequels, though the more fox-eared viewers may be able to pick up on moments where it is clear Murphy is scaling it back.
The loss of his laugh may disappoint some longtime fans of Eddie Murphy and Beverly Hills Cop, but the fourth film in the series is already set to feature plenty of other callbacks to the previous films. Chief among them is the return of Murphy's longtime Beverly Hills Cop castmates Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot.
Return to Beverly Hills
Reinhold and Ashton return as Billy Rosewood and John Taggart, respectively, who are Axel's now-retired friends from the Los Angeles Police Department who aided Axel during his investigations in Beverly Hills. Reinhold last portrayed Rosewood in Beverly Hills Cop 3 while Ashton was last seen as Taggart in Beverly Hills Cop 2.
Reiser also makes his first appearance in the franchise since Beverly Hills Cop 2 to reprise his role as Jeffrey Friedman, Axel's partner in the Detroit Police Department who has since gone on to become the department's deputy chief.
Pinchot, like Reinhold, made his last franchise appearance in Beverly Hills Cop 3 as Serge, a former art dealer-turned-weapons dealer who ends up befriending Foley after the events of the original 1984 film.
Alongside the returning cast, Murphy is joined by Kevin Bacon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Taylor Paige for Foley's latest trip to Beverly Hills to investigate the threat made against his estranged daughter, who works as a defense attorney in LA and is representing someone being set up by dirty cops in the LAPD.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is available to stream on Netflix.
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