During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, veteran actor and comedian Eddie Murphy disclosed the reason why he abruptly left the 2007 Oscars after he did not win an award for his role in the musical Dreamgirls.
Though it was claimed that Murphy, 64, left the event because he was angry about being snubbed, he said that was not the case.
Murphy’s role as James “Thunder” Early, a.k.a. Jimmy in Dreamgirls, earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. That was his first Oscar nomination. The likes of Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé, and Jennifer Hudson also starred in the critically acclaimed movie.
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At the time, the other actors in Murphy’s category included Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine, Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children, Djimon Hounsou for Blood Diamond, and Mark Wahlberg for The Departed.
Arkin ultimately won the award, and Murphy was even seen applauding when he was announced as the winner. But the Beverly Hills Cop star later left the event and was not around to witness Hudson being announced as the Best Supporting Actress for her role in the movie. He was also not around when his co-stars took to the stage to perform.
“What happened was I was at the Oscars, I had lost, and then people kept coming over to me and kept [patting] me on the shoulder,” Murphy told the news outlet while discussing his Netflix documentary Being Eddie. “Clint Eastwood came and rubbed my shoulder. And I was like, oh, no, no, I’m not gonna be this guy all night. Let’s just leave. I didn’t storm out. I was like, I’m not gonna be the sympathy guy all night.”
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Murphy also told Entertainment Weekly that he was sure Arkin’s performance in Little Miss Sunshine would earn him an Oscar, adding that the deceased actor was “hysterically funny.”
“Jeff Katzenberg invited me over to see Little Miss Sunshine six months before it came out in the theaters, and I literally watched the movie and I watched Alan — and I hadn’t been nominated or anything yet — and I watched the movie and I turned to Jeff afterwards and I said, ‘Now that performance right there is one of those performances that will steal somebody’s Oscar,'” the 64-year-old said. “I said those exact words. I was like, ‘He could steal somebody’s Oscar,’ then he stole mine.”
Murphy then laughed before saying, “No, I don’t feel like he stole mine.”
Murphy also explained that he has come to understand that “winning an Oscar is more art than science. It’s not like oh, you do this, and you do that, and you win the Oscar. No, it’s all this intangible stuff that comes with winning: campaigning and your past stuff and what do they owe you and s—. All of that stuff comes into play when you get Oscars.”
He said Arkin ticked all of those boxes. “When you add all of that stuff into it, he totally deserves his Oscar for his whole career. He’s an amazing actor,” Murphy said.
In his Being Eddie documentary, Murphy explained why losing an award was a “mindf—.” “The mindf— for me is that I get dressed and come to the thing, ’cause I would usually not go to award shows,” he said in the documentary.
“Whenever I lose, I’m like, These motherf—ers made me come all the way down. I could have f—ing lost at home. I’m all in the f—ing tuxedo. What a waste of time.”
