EDDIE MURPHY MAKES A TRIUMPHANT
RETURN TO HIS FAT SUIT OF HILARITY IN NORBIT
Throughout his illustrious 25-year career, Eddie Murphy has distinguished himself as one of the few actors who can convincingly play multiple characters in a film. Now he has returned to the genre that has endeared him to audiences with the outrageous comedy, Norbit, scheduled for release February 9th by Paramount and from DreamWorks Pictures.
Moviegoers first witnessed the genius of Murphy to do multiple characters in1984 when he starred as the charming Prince Akeem in Coming to America. Additionally, he played three other radically different characters in the film; Clarence, the barber; Randy Watson, the R&B singer; and most undetectable, Saul, the Jewish man in the barber shop. In 1996 and 2000 he played the overweight Professor Sherman Klump, as well as four other members of the Klump clan in the Nutty Professor films.
Murphy’s sensational performance as R&B singer James “Thunder” Early in the highly acclaimed film Dreamgirls, also from Paramount and DreamWorks, is receiving rave reviews. His performance has already garnered him a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor. He is also nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, which will be announced on February 25th at the Academy Awards show, broadcast from Los Angeles.
In the outlandish comedy Norbit, Eddie Murphy stars with an array of highly regarded stars, including Academy award-winner Cuba Gooding, Jr., SAG award-winner Thandie Newton, outrageous comedy actors Marlon Wayans, Eddie Griffin and Katt Williams, Terry Crews and Clifton Powell.
“Eddie has drawn really strong, quality performers together. All of us feel this movie is a celebration of the work of Eddie Murphy. We are taking our hats off and bowing down to a great man and his amazing work. I love being a part of this project because we get to witness the unique qualities he has that make him great,” Newton says.
Murphy hand picked Academy Award-winner Cuba Gooding Jr. to play, Kate’s fiancé Deion Hughes. Gooding talks about his attraction to working with Murphy, “I’m a huge Eddie Murphy fan. He is the draw for me. My first role in a film was playing a boy in the barber shop in Coming to America. It was a real small part and all my lines were cut out. So, now, all these many years later, I have a bigger part in an Eddie Murphy movie. It is just a thrill.
“Years ago, when I say Raw, it was the first time I realized that he was a comedian on the level of Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce. I was with my girlfriend, who's now my wife, and we couldn’t believe how he hit home on so many different levels. I thought he was brilliant. The fact that he could turn day-to-day things into humorous banter was amazing to me.”
Cuba reveals Eddie unique acting abilities, “On the first day of filming, Eddie walked on the set as an Asian guy, and nobody knew it was Eddie, until he said, ‘It’s me. It's Eddie Murphy.’ Then all of a sudden, you saw his energy illuminate on the set. It's that brilliance that makes this movie stand out, because you don't recognize him in these roles and people respond to him differently.
Eddie Griffin, who plays a street hustler named Pope Sweet Jesus, also talks about his first day on the set. “Man, I'm telling you, it is unbelievable. The special effects makeup and Eddie’s characterization are so good. I'm sitting here talking to this Chinese dude. I'm thinking this is a cool little Chinese cat and we chat for like 30-minutes. Then they said, ‘Mr. Murphy, we ready for you on set’ and the Chinese dude gets up. I'm like, ‘Damn, I don’t believe this.’”
Funnyman Katt Williams sums it up, “Eddie Murphy is a comic icon. To watch him work is like watching Michael Jordan play basketball. You try to measure up, but it’s not possible. We can’t fuss about our roles and getting hot in our suits, because Eddie’s playing all these roles, wearing all this makeup and he’s not complaining. He’s just doing his thing. He’s a real inspiration to all of us in the comedy game.”
Clifton Powell was also hand picked by Eddie Murphy to play Earl, one of the three Latimore brothers, who intimidates Norbit. “Eddie chose me and I feel a moral obligation to do my best. Because if he believes I’m the best person for the role, I have to come with my ‘A’ game. Eddie's process is fascinating to watch. He comes to the set very prepared and he knows what he's doing. It is an intrigue art form.”
Murphy talks about casting Marlon Wayans to play a hilarious aerobics instructor, “He mixes tap dancing with aerobics and calls it Power Tap. It’s a wild take off on Billy Blanks, the Tae Bo guru. Marlon is another one of the guys who adds to the comedy in the picture. Everybody is very funny.”
Norbit (Eddie Murphy) has never had it easy. As a baby, he was abandoned on the steps of a Chinese restaurant/orphanage and raised by Mr. Wong (Eddie Murphy). Things get worse when he’s forced into marriage by the mean, junk food-chugging queen, Rasputia (Eddie Murphy). Just when Norbit’s hanging by his last thread, his childhood sweetheart, Kate (Thandie Newton), moves back to town. In the comedy Norbit, he’ll show them all that nice guys sometimes finish first.
Murphy says, “I enjoy doing multiple roles because I get to go in a whole other place. It takes me away from my skin and opens me up to all these different possibilities. I love that.”
For each of his multiple character films Murphy has collaborated with Rick Baker, Academy-Award winning special effects makeup artist for over twenty years. The preparation for each film is approximately six months.
Murphy says, “I feel most comfortable with Rick. I feel like he makes a whole character come to life. It is not creating makeup; it is like he creates a real person.”
Baker explains, “This is how Eddie and I work; I create the designs, first. Then when I do the makeup test on him he starts creating the voice. The makeup determines what he’s going to do. That is when you witness the vision coming to life. He is a master at studying people’s faces, voices and mannerisms. He can impersonate anybody. When he comes up with something, sometimes it even surprises him. He laughs at it and that process is fun to watch.”
The filming of a movie with multiple characters is challenging, Baker explains, “The biggest problem is Eddie can only play one character a day. If Eddie is Norbit and Rasputia is in the same scene, that scene is twice as long, because he can only be Norbit one day and Rasputia the next.”
Baker’s goal is to make the makeup look real in person. “I think these makeups are some of the best that I have had come out of my studio, especially Mr. Wong. On the set, other actors were actually having conversations with Mr. Wong, not realizing that it was Eddie behind the makeup. When that happens, I know we’ve done our job.”
Murphy rise to fame began when he was 19 years-old on NBC's Saturday Night Live television show, not long after graduating from Roosevelt Junior-Senior High School. His characters include a parody of Buckwheat from the Little Rascals and an inner-city black version of Fred Rogers known as "Mr. Robinson". Former SNL writer Margaret Humphert has said Murphy and Bill Murray are the two most talented people in the history of the show. Murphy left the show midway through the 1983-1984 season, appearing in filmed sketches for the remainder of that season.
Murphy later starred in many comedies including the Beverly Hills Cop series. He was recognized by receiving a Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a comedy or musical for his performances in Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places, The Nutty Professor, and most recently Dreamgirls. [1]
He is a well-known voice actor and voiced Thurgood Stubbs in The PJs, Donkey in the Shrek series and the dragon Mushu, in Disney's Mulan. Murphy also has the distinction of having starred in more sequels than any other actor in Hollywood. Those films include: Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Another 48 Hrs. (1990), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000), Shrek 2 (2004), and the upcoming Shrek the Third (2007).
In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Eddie Murphy's older brother, Charlie Murphy, is also an actor, best known recently for his appearances on Chappelle's Show.
DreamWorks Pictures presents a John Davis Production of a Brian Robbins Film, “Norbit,” starring Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Eddie Griffin, Terry Crews, Clifton Powell, Katt Williams, Lester “Rasta” Speight and Cuba Gooding, Jr. The executive producers are Mike Tollin, Brian Robbins and David Householter.
The film is produced by John Davis and Eddie Murphy. Story by Eddie Murphy & Charles Murphy. The screenplay is by Eddie Murphy & Charles Murphy and Jay Scherick & David Ronn. The creative team is led by director of photography Clark Mathis, A.S.C., production designer Clay A. Griffith, film editor Ned Bastille, A.C.E. and costume designer Molly Maginnis, with music by David Newman and special make-up effects by Rick Baker. Directed by Brian Robbins, the film is distributed by Paramount Pictures.
Information provided by www.rozstevensonpr.com
UPDATE: According to www.imdb.com, last weekend, "Norbit" was the No. 1 movie in the country raking in $34.2M beating out the comeptition by $20 million!
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