Why Eddie Murphy won't give 'Pickup' co-star Pete Davidson parenting advice
Here's a novel idea: Create the mother of all mismatches by putting Eddie Murphy in a chase caper with a hapless co-star, and watch the hilarious sparks fly.
That was the recipe for Murphy's 1982 breakout "48 Hrs.," the action comedy co-starring Nick Nolte, and then his blockbuster movie series "Beverly Hills Cop." And here we are again with "The Pickup" (streaming Aug. 6 on Prime Video), which pairs Murphy with that delightfully human Goofy, Pete Davidson.
For Murphy, 64, there's an unmistakable pride that comes with launching a unique movie genre.
"The first real action comedy of this kind was '48 Hrs.' because before that, remember it was all Clint Eastwood saying, 'Go ahead, make my day,' and Charles Bronson in 'Death Wish,' all these hard-nosed cops, " says Murphy, casual on a video call in a sleeveless T-shirt.
"After our movie, it seemed suddenly every tough guy had the one-liners: (Arnold Schwarzenegger's) 'Hasta la vista' or (Bruce Willis') 'Yippee ki-yay.' So, yeah, I kind of pioneered the genre."
In "The Pickup," Murphy plays Russell Pierce, an armored truck driver who just wants to make it through another shift to meet his wife Natalie for their anniversary dinner. But he's paired with Travis (Davidson), whose cheery demeanor increasingly rankles until their truck is hijacked and the two have to bond to survive. The movie co-stars Keke Palmer and Eva Longoria.
While Nolte was Murphy's foil in "48 Hrs.," and Judge Reinhold played that role in "Beverly Hills Cop," Davidson is next up in that position, and Murphy couldn't be more pleased. "Pete is 6-foot-3 and white, and I'm 5-foot-10 and Black, and he's in his mid-20s and I'm in my 60s," he says, guessing low on Davidson's actual age (31). "There's all this generational stuff, there's comedy in that."
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Murphy says he "became aware" of Davidson by watching him on "Saturday Night Live," and met him not long before "The Pickup" came together. As for choosing his projects, the star says he never stresses.
"I've never looked for anything," he says. "Some of my movies have been my ideas, or stuff just comes in. I've never had any goals; I've just been going with the flow for 43 years. But, yeah, for the most part I get comedies and action comedies, very rarely straight up dramatic films."
Murphy says talks are already underway for a sequel to "The Pickup," and there's even some buzz about pairing him with Davidson for a remake of the 1988 Frank Oz comedy classic "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," which starred Steve Martin and Michael Caine. It's easy to picture Murphy inhabiting either hilarious role, with Davidson as his sidekick.
"I love Pete, he's an interesting mix, talented and funny," Murphy says. "We had great chemistry. We have a lot in common. We both started as stand-up comics really young, we both were on 'Saturday Night Live' very young, we both lost our dads really young, and we both have a connection with women that comedians usually don't have."
Murphy has been married to his second wife. Australian model Paige Butcher since 2024, and the couple has two kids (Murphy has a brood of 10 kids total with various moms). Davidson has dated several high-profile women, including Ariana Grande, Kaia Gerber and Kim Kardashian, and is an expectant father with model girlfriend Elsie Hewitt.
"I congratulated Pete (on fatherhood), I told him he's going to be great because when you lose your dad really young, you go overboard yourself because you want them to have things you never had," says Murphy, whose father Charles was killed when Murphy was 8. Davidson's father Scott was one of the many first responders who died on Sept. 11, 2001, a trauma that Davidson revisited in the 2020 film "The King of Staten Island."
Did Murphy have any parental advice for Davidson?
"You can't give people advice on how to raise a kid," he says. "It's all an individual thing, but nature has wired you to do that. All kids are different, of course, and you can't raise them all the same. But I feel like you have to put more effort into actually being a bad parent, because being a good parent comes naturally."