The Hardcore 'Coming to America' Fight That Almost Ended the Eddie Murphy Masterpiece

Eddie Murphy’s body of work has been full of comedy gems since his career took off in the early ’80s. Of all the iconic films he has gifted to the world, 1988’s Coming to America stands the test of time as the comedian’s most memorable work, which movie lovers can now watch for free on Tubi. However, as touching and hilarious as the fish-out-of-water comedy was, Murphy’s clashes with the movie’s director, John Landis, nearly caused Coming to America to fall apart.

Released at the height of his fame in the late ’80s, Coming to America gave audiences a full glimpse of Murphy’s extraordinary gifts beyond his raunchy stand-up act. Instead of playing characters fast-talking and shooting their way through bad guys, the SNL alum showcased not only his softer side as an African prince seeking true love in Queens, NY, but also his unique ability to portray multiple characters with the help of special effects makeup legend Rick Baker. The film scored 73% on Rotten Tomatoes and was a massive worldwide box-office hit. Despite the film’s success, the production would fracture Murphy and Landis’s relationship for years.

How Eddie Murphy and John Landis Met

Image via Nice Guy Productions

In 1983, Murphy was coming off his smash-hit debut 48 HRS. when he jumped at the opportunity to work with Landis on Trading Places. Landis’s career was riding high because of the success of National Lampoon’s Animal House, The Blues Brothers, and An American Werewolf in London, solidifying his status in Hollywood as an in-demand filmmaker for the comedy genre. Though the tragic accident on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie tainted his reputation, that did not stop major studios from hiring Landis.

Trading Places was Murphy’s second-biggest hit at the time. The satirical tale of wealthy brothers placing a bet to trade the lives of Dan Aykroyd’s commodities director and Murphy’s street hustler provided the young comedian from Roosevelt, Long Island, an opportunity to prove he was disciplined in comedic timing while also holding his own opposite acting legends such as Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy. More importantly, Murphy impressed Landis with his charisma, as the filmmaker recalled in Nick de Semlyen’s book Wild and Crazy Guys.

“I was very pleased with Eddie. He was terrific. He was nineteen or something, just full of beans. At that time in his life, he was just bursting with energy.”

Five years later, Murphy reached global superstar status with the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, making him Paramount’s biggest box-office draw of the decade. Having the privilege of picking his own projects, the comedian chose to make Coming to America with Landis at the helm to recapture the fun of their first collaboration. If Landis expected his Trading Places star to remain the bright-eyed kid from years earlier, he was in for a rude awakening.

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The Fight on the 'Coming to America' Set

The book Wild and Crazy Guys details the tension between megastar Murphy and his Coming to America director. Tensions arose over Landis being turned off by Murphy’s overinflated ego. In turn, the director refused to let Murphy view dailies after each shoot day and was frustrated by the comedian’s refusal to testify as a character witness during the Twilight Zone manslaughter trial one year earlier. The on-set feud reached a boiling point when Murphy physically grabbed Landis by the throat after hearing allegations of the director back-talking to the crew about the star’s finances. Murphy later confirmed the incident in a 1990 interview with Playboy magazine.

“The mother*****r was on his f******g toes for the rest of the show and didn’t f**k with me for the whole rest of the picture.”

Murphy and Landis did not speak to each other again until they made amends in the early ’90s to make Beverly Hills Cop III. By this point in their careers, Murphy had suffered a string of box-office flops, while Landis was not faring much better outside his directorial work on the HBO comedy series Dream On. Despite the threequel’s underwhelming reception among critics and audiences, no further altercations occurred between the star and director.

In the end, the irony is that the Murphy/Landis feud may have helped shape Coming to America into the enduring comedy classic it is today. Murphy was evolving from a red-hot stand-up star into a creative force determined to control his own voice on screen, while Landis brought the old-school discipline of a veteran director who knew how to structure a big studio comedy. Their clashes reflected two different eras of Hollywood colliding, but the finished product proves that the push and pull worked.

Nearly four decades later, audiences are still quoting its lines, celebrating its outrageous characters, and discovering the Soul Glo all over again on streaming — proof that even a little behind-the-scenes friction can produce comedic gold.

Coming to America is streaming on Tubi in the US.

Release Date June 29, 1988

Runtime 117 minutes

Director John Landis

Writers Barry W. Blaustein, David Sheffield, Eddie Murphy

Producers Leslie Belzberg, Mark Lipsky

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  Eddie Murphy

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  Arsenio Hall

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