“That’s my favorite thing. When we did the first Coming To America, we went to an after-party or something and Jesse Jackson was there. And he was like, ‘I just wanna tell ya that I’m so happy that you reached out and gave some of the older actors some parts. Those old guys have great charisma.’ I was like, n—a that was me and Arsenio. He was like, ‘What, now I got to go see the movie over.’ And that’s my favorite thing is for someone to watch the movie and not know it’s me,” Murphy explained.
During the interview, Murphy also revealed that movie critics Siskel and Ebert gave the movie two thumbs down when it was released. “The original Coming to America is the first movie in the history of movies where you have an all-Black cast and the movie is successful all around the world,” he said, rebuffing the critics’ negative review.
