And then Chris Rock on Eddie Murphy.
When he wants it, nobody’s funnier than him. No one’s even close to him. I just went through a little exercise where I watched a bunch of old movies, like from the ’80s. The only ones that held up were the Murphy movies. A Murphy movie is like a Sidney Poitier comedy — he’s that intensely good… He revolutionized acting. He’s literally black Brando. Before Eddie Murphy, there were two schools of acting for a black actor: Either you played it LIKE THIS or youplayeditlahkdis. He was the first black guy in a movie to talk like I am talking to you right now. Just like we’re talking right now. That did not exist for black actors before him. Good Times is a good show for that: It was either John Amos or Jimmie Walker; that’s what black acting was.
Via Jonah Keri