'Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.' Interviews With Eddie Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kevin Bacon & More

Cinema Blend

“Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.” boasts a stellar cast that includes newcomers Kevin Bacon and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as well as returning icons Eddie Murphy, Judge Reinhold and John Ashton. CinemaBlend’s Jeff McCobb sat down with the lot of them, as well as director Mark Molloy and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, to discuss everything under the sun. This includes a potential sequel to “Footloose,” J.G.L.’s return to the “Knives Out” universe, the secret to a successful reboot, and of course, an extensive Tracy Morgan impression courtesy of Eddie Murphy.

Transcript

00:00Tracy Morgan. I don't pull out. You're going to get pregnant. You're going to get pregnant

00:07with me. Excuse me, ladies. That wasn't me. That was Tracy Morgan.

00:13Please tell me you didn't get arrested again. Twice, but I broke out.

00:22Is this the one that you get recognized from the most? The Beverly Hills Cop franchise?

00:26Yeah, probably. You know, when they're yelling, hey, Taggart, when they walk down the street,

00:31you know, so that's a pretty good compliment. Yeah, the cops just call me Billy. For real?

00:36Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I get to, Taggart, watch out for the banana in the tailpipe.

00:42It doesn't have been like 40 years of that. Are you sick of it yet? Or are you still like it?

00:45We are proud to be in a celebrated franchise, I think. That's what it is. That we weren't

00:52doing something that had been buried and that we were dredging up, you know, that there's

00:58a continuation. We're proud about that. Yeah, you know, and when we were shooting the first

01:04one, we didn't know what we had. No.

01:06You know, I mean, you're an actor, you go to work, you do your job, and you don't know

01:11what you really have yet, you know, because you haven't seen the editing. So you just do

01:15day by day, you do your job, do your job. And we went to the premiere, and it was kind

01:21of a lukewarm reception, you know. So Judge and I, a couple nights later, went to a regular

01:27theater with a regular audience and sat in the balcony. And halfway through, people are

01:32screaming and yelling and laughing. And we looked at each other and said, we better get

01:35out of here. Yeah.

01:37Were you there last night?

01:38Yeah, yeah.

01:39Okay, so you didn't have to go see it at a regular theater this time, because that was

01:42a good reception. Yeah, yeah. And that's an industry reception. So I can't even imagine

01:48what the regular audience is going to be like. Yeah, it played well. Played well, you

01:53know, and it was really kind of cool, I thought. When Paul Reiser came on, everybody applauded.

01:59When I came on, everybody. When he came on, everybody. I thought that was very cool.

02:03I haven't pissed off anybody. Yeah, 50-50. 50-50. Is it that high?

02:07So far. Wow.

02:08Kevin, get this, okay? This is nuts to me. 1984, top 10,

02:12box office releases were Footloose at 6.

02:17Let's dance!

02:18Beverly Hills Cop at 7. Right next to each other.

02:22Also, on the top 10 was Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, and Karate Kid.

02:27All of those properties have had reboots now, or revivals, except for...

02:32Yeah, the F movie.

02:33Does that mean that Rent's coming back?

02:35Well, he's not coming back. I mean, they did do another Footloose.

02:39It was... I mean, I don't think a lot of people saw it, but they did do another Footloose.

02:43Let's dance!

02:45Not a lot of people saw it, because it didn't have Kevin Pinfield.

02:49You know, I don't know. Playing that guy, I think that this one makes a lot more sense.

02:55Yeah, you'd just rather, like, get into someone else's franchise.

02:58Yeah, man. Yeah, a lot less pressure.

03:00Right now, the internet is really cynical regarding, like, reboots and sequels,

03:06but here you are collecting Oscar nominations and box office success one after the other.

03:11Have you, like, cracked the code? How did you...

03:14I don't know if there's a code. We just try to make movies.

03:17I make movies I want to go see, and so I'm very particular in the kind of movies I want to go see,

03:22so we worked really hard on it.

03:24You bring a new director in, you know, his life depends on it,

03:27and that's what you want from a director who's talented like Mark is.

03:31He went, this movie has to be great for his career, and that's the best for us.

03:36You know, when you get a director who's had so many successes after success,

03:39they could phone it in, but he can't phone it in. He's got to make it perfect.

03:43He's... That means that your stress is what made the movie work.

03:46That's good, man. Jerry's totally right. When you get offered an opportunity like this,

03:52I grabbed it with both hands, and I did not let it go,

03:54and I did not stop working until it was going to be great.

03:57You know, I just... You get those opportunities, and you make the most of them.

04:02What is the one that people keep bugging you about the next, like, sequel or reboot?

04:06It's always Pirates or Top Gun, or all of them, you know, they all want to see them again.

04:12If we get it right, then they want to see them again.

04:14You just re... You know, came out with a sequel to Coming to America.

04:18I was wondering if your experience developing that came into play at all

04:23with how you approach these things, rebooted franchises and sequels.

04:26No, Coming to America came about when I did... I got the Mark Twain Award.

04:33And when I got that, Tracy Morgan was one of the people who was at the Mark Twain Award,

04:38and he told me an idea that he had about...

04:41He said, I got this thing about this dude, this guy that go to Africa to find their wife,

04:46just like coming to America.

04:48It's the opposite.

04:49You know, y'all came to... You came to America.

04:51We're going to go to Africa and find our wives.

04:54And I was like, hmm.

04:56And that's where the whole idea of coming to him.

04:59Then people started pitching.

05:00People was like...

05:01What was the brother's name that Coogler that directed...

05:04Ryan Coogler.

05:05Yeah, he...

05:06They came...

05:07He had...

05:07He came with a pitch, and they wanted to do a...

05:10It was like, so Tracy came, then Ryan Coogler came, and it was like,

05:14people are...

05:14They really like this Coming to America.

05:17So then we came up with something, you know.

05:19And then Ryan Coogler went off and did Black Panther.

05:21Because I didn't like the pitch that he had.

05:24It's...

05:25It was a pretty solid Tracy...

05:27Tracy Morgan.

05:28Oh, my Tracy Morgan.

05:29Tracy Morgan!

05:30I don't pull out.

05:33You're going to get pregnant.

05:36You're going to get pregnant fucking with me.

05:38I'm going to get everyone in this building pregnant.

05:40Pregnant.

05:41Excuse me, ladies.

05:42No, that's perfect.

05:42That wasn't me.

05:43That was Tracy Morgan.

05:44Oh, hey!

05:45You stole a helicopter?

05:46I didn't realize that you couldn't really buy a helicopter.

05:49Otherwise, I would have came up with a different idea.

05:51Was it bonkers to see it played back to you for the first time with the iconic soundtrack,

05:56and did it take on a whole different vibe?

05:58Well, you know, the soundtrack entered my mind from the second I started reading it.

06:03Yeah.

06:03It sort of went on to a loop.

06:05And certainly while we were shooting, I would go to sleep with it in my mind.

06:08I would wake up in my mind.

06:10I'd look at the call sheet.

06:11It would say Beverly Hills Cop 4.

06:13I'd hear the soundtrack.

06:14I mean, it's really hard to...

06:16It's hard to escape.

06:16It's a totally infectious melody.

06:19That melody is one of the very first I ever remember learning to plunk out on a piano when

06:25I was a little kid and could probably just play, like, Marry Had a Little Lamb and Twinkle

06:30Twinkle Little Star.

06:31I started figuring out...

06:33So it's a deeply meaningful song to me, and I love hearing, I love hearing, like, the original

06:46synth version, but also in this, in this movie, you get to hear it played by a full power orchestra.

06:52Yeah, which is great.

06:53Which is pretty great also.

06:54Yeah, it's like the John Williams version.

06:56Right.

06:56But the movie works.

06:58I mean, it really does.

07:00And you could feel it last night in the audience.

07:02You know, people dug it in that crowd, and I think they're going to dig it at home.

07:06From very early on, I was chatting to Lorne, our composer, and we were talking about, you

07:11know, the soundtrack from one and two.

07:14And it's amazing that you get handed that as a starting point.

07:19And such a, those soundtracks, such a huge influence in those films, you know, and such

07:25the DNA of those films, you know.

07:27So when I was on set, I was playing some of those, some of the original soundtracks back.

07:32You'd be doing a shot, I'd put the soundtrack on, but yeah, yeah, no, this feels good.

07:36This feels good.

07:37Now, you know, make that pan a little bit slower.

07:39I could hear, I could hear that soundtrack in my head.

07:42And then obviously we didn't want to just put the old soundtrack on.

07:45We wanted to evolve it, but it laid the foundations for a lot of the tone of the film and, you

07:53know, and the feeling of the film.

07:54Well, was there one for you where you were like, now we finally feel at home in the franchise.

07:57I can't believe we're doing this.

07:58I think probably for both of us, it was the Unmarked Car with Eddie.

08:03Oh, yeah.

08:04Yeah.

08:05Because we really felt home there.

08:07Yeah.

08:08Like something good was going to happen just whenever the three of us are doing something.

08:14It was unspoken, but we were all kind of beaming about it.

08:17I'll tell you one thing we would do.

08:19We would work with Marty Breast again.

08:21Absolutely.

08:22In a second.

08:23In a minute.

08:24Marty!

08:25I'm done!

08:27I'll release that online.

08:29We'll see what happens.

08:29You had like an iconic laugh that people were butchering.

08:35I started out, that was my real laugh.

08:38And then I realized a little bit of, oh, they're laughing at my laugh.

08:41And then it became like, you know, part of it was like, all you have to do is do that laugh.

08:44And they would laugh.

08:45And it was like, oh, no, I'm not.

08:47And I really made myself stop laughing.

08:50Like, I don't laugh like that anymore.

08:52That's a strange thing as a human being to have to adjust something as natural as that

08:56where you go through, I can't laugh like that because people always look up and say, oh,

09:02that's the thing.

09:03And once I was going into a hotel and a guy came to me and said, you still got that laugh?

09:08And I was like, what?

09:09He said, you still got that laugh?

09:11And I said, yeah.

09:12He said, hey, man, was that computers?

09:16He asked me, was it a computer?

09:17I didn't even know what to say.

09:18I just, I feel like I'm still standing there.

09:20I didn't know what to like.

09:21He said that just kind of, and just kind of walked away.

09:25He said, he said it all like sotto voce, you know, just between you and me, man.

09:30Is that done with computers?

09:31Beverly Hills Cop 1 was nominated for one Oscar.

09:35Do you know what it was?

09:38I think it was screenplay soundtrack, wasn't it?

09:42I think it was screenplay, maybe.

09:43Screenplay.

09:44Screenplay.

09:44Yeah, very good, very good.

09:46All right, let's just, it's your honor roll.

09:48Beverly Hills Cop 2 was nominated for one Oscar as well.

09:51What was it?

09:53Two.

09:54I've got no idea on this one.

09:55No, no.

09:56No idea.

09:56Best original score.

09:58I can't.

10:00I was right.

10:01I just had it in the wrong order.

10:02You guys are doing pretty good.

10:04Beverly Hills Cop 3 was nominated for three Oscars.

10:06No, I'm just kidding.

10:09Me and Jerry haven't seen that one, so we don't.

10:11Have you really not seen it?

10:13No.

10:13Ah, I just watched it yesterday for the first time.

10:15Did you?

10:16Yeah.

10:16By intention, huh?

10:17Mm-hmm.

10:18Benoit Blanc 3 is looking to be noir-y, kind of, you know what I mean?

10:24Is that exciting?

10:25He's going back to his roots, and what are the chances of more than a voice cameo?

10:28Yeah, I don't know.

10:29I don't know.

10:30But he makes only good movies.

10:33Rian Johnson's one of the best alive, I think.

10:35I got all five senses, and I slept last night.

10:37That puts me six up on the lot of you.

10:39They're telling me to rap.

10:40Do you think you're in your villain phase right now?

10:42Or have you always been in your villain phase?

10:43Oh, I don't know.

10:45Listen, I'm just trying to work out my demons, man.

10:48That's a really great short last-second answer.

10:50I appreciate you guys so much.

10:52God, I miss two, Axel.

10:53I'm your fan of Do we?

10:58Good day.

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