Eddie Murphy has shared that Robin Williams once urged him not to criticize the Academy over its lack of Black nominees at the Oscars.
Murphy, 64, presented the award for Best Picture at the 1988 ceremony. But before handing out the trophy, he planned to make a speech calling out the voting body for having only awarded three Black actors in its then 60-year history.
As he waited backstage with Williams, who had just awarded the Best Directing Oscar to Bernardo Bertolucci, he remembered sharing his planned speech with the late comedian.
“I was like, ‘I’m gonna say this.’ And he goes to me, like, ‘But why go there?’” Murphy recently recounted to Entertainment Weekly. “I was like, ‘Oh, you don’t think it’s funny?’”
The Beverly Hills Cop star clarified that Williams’s hesitation wasn’t so much about his remarks being controversial, but rather whether they were actually funny.
“I was trying to be funny and say a little something, but be funny too,” Murphy added. “Have a little edge to what I said.”
He explained that at the time he hadn’t considered the “ramifications” of his remarks. “I was just trying to be funny in the moment and I wanted what I was saying to be relevant,” he noted.
Ignoring Williams’s warning, Murphy went ahead with his speech. Taking the stage, he told the audience that he initially declined the Academy’s invitation to present the coveted award.
“I’m not going because they haven’t recognized Black people in motion pictures,” he recalled telling his manager.
Murphy went on to list the three Black actors who had won an Oscar by that point, including Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier and Louis Gossett Jr.
“And I’ll probably never win an Oscar for saying this, but hey, what the hey, I gotta say it,” his speech continued. “Actually, I might not be in any trouble ‘cause the way it’s been going is about every 20 years we get one, so we ain’t due to about 2004. So by that time, this will all be blown over.
“So I came down here to give the award,” Murphy continued during his speech. “I said, ‘But I just feel that we have to be recognized as a people. I just want you to know I’m gonna give this award, but Black people will not ride the caboose of society, and we will not bring up the rear anymore. And I want you to recognize us.’”
He concluded with a laugh, remembering that after asking his manager what time he had to be there to present the award, his manager replied that he didn’t have to arrive until late — “because it’s the last award of the evening.”
In 2007, Murphy, whose new documentary Being Eddie was released Wednesday on Netflix, coincidentally went on to earn a nod for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Dreamgirls. However, he lost the category to Little Miss Sunshine’s Alan Arkin.
