Eddie Murphy Had the Best Response to the Movies That Make Him Cry (Spoiler: They Include 'Pluto Nash')

Eddie Murphy’s new drama Mr. Church — about a girl (Britt Robertson) who loses her mother to cancer and then comes of age under the tutelage of Murphy’s titular cook — is one of those movies tailor-made to bring audiences to tears.

So at the film’s recent Los Angeles press day, we asked Murphy, 55, which movies he would pop on if he needs a good cry.

Pluto Nash, that breaks me down, that breaks me all the way down,” Murphy told Yahoo Movies (watch above). “Then I put on Meet Dave. That tears me apart,” Murphy added before breaking into his trademark howl. “And then if I really want to cry, I’ll put on Imagine That.”

Related: Eddie Murphy Almost Starred in a ‘Star Trek’ Movie

Those three projects were all part of a — how shall we say? — rough stretch for Murphy in the 2000s. The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002), especially, is considered one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time, grossing just $7 million on a budget of $100 million. While not as financially disastrous, Meet Dave (2008) and Imagine That (2009) were nonetheless pummeled by movie critics. (“The check movies are over for me,” Murphy told the Washington Post in a recent interview, explaining why the low-budget Mr. Church marks his first film in four years.)

The comedy legend better known for classics like Beverly Hills Cop, Coming America, and Trading Places was obviously kidding. It’s unlikely he’s putting on Pluto Nash for any reason. But he did offer up a genuine response to the question, too, explaining how one scene in the 1995 Spike Lee drama Crooklyn — when brother and sister come together after their mother’s funeral — makes him just “fall apart.”

“It can be anything,” Murphy added, citing the ‘70s sitcom Good Times and a television commercial for fatherhood.gov as his own personal tearjerkers. “As I’ve gotten older, I really, really cry easy.”

Mr. Church opens Sept. 16.