Eddie Murphy, 62, Explains Difficulty of Performing Stunts for ‘Beverly Hills Cop 4'

Eddie Murphy was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Wednesday night, where he promoted his new Amazon Prime movie Candy Cane Lane. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s the veteran performer’s first holiday film. However, Murphy will soon be returning to one of his most famous roles—as Axel Foley in the fourth installment of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise. Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley drops on Netflix next year.

After Kimmel commended the 62-year-old actor on his youthful appearance, Murphy cracked that much has changed since he last played the character in 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III. He explained that his more-or-less unchanged look from the 1980s led to crew members on the new film to overestimate his physical abilities.

“When I was on the set, we kept having that experience,” Murphy recalled. “There was a scene where they wanted me to run down these steps. It was outside, these cement steps,” the star explained. “After I did it, the director said, ‘Can you come down faster with more of a sense of urgency?’ And I was like, ‘No I can’t!’”

After repeated requests to accomplish physically impossible tasks, Murphy devised a fool-proof way to communicate his limitations to the set.

“Listen now, I know I still look like Axel Foley,” Murphy recalled telling the crew, “but don’t ask me to do nothin’ you won’t ask Morgan Freeman to do.”

Netflix recently premiered the first image from Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley, though an exact release date hasn’t been announced. Candy Cane Lane premieres December 1 on Amazon Prime.