EXCLUSIVE: Eddie Murphy Reveals the One Secret to His Blockbusting Hollywood Success — And It's All About His 'Gigantic' Ego
Eddie Murphy has revealed the ego-driven secret behind his blockbuster Hollywood success.
Nov. 19 2025, Published 6:44 p.m. ET
Eddie Murphy has revealed the driving engine behind his four-decade rise to Hollywood superstardom is the same quality that has kept him from the self-destructive patterns that claimed so many of his peers – a gigantic ego and an unapologetic love of himself.
As RadarOnline.com has reported, a new Netflix documentary, Being Eddie, the actor traces his journey from Long Island clubs to global fame, telling the story of the 21-year-old celebrating his early movie stardom in the 1980s 1982 and his rapid transformation from breakout talent on Saturday Night Live to blockbuster headliner in films such as 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America.
The Brynner Encounter
Eddie Murphy revealed his ego powered his rise to Hollywood superstardom.
The film, directed by Angus Wall, is built around Murphy's own recollections, filmed largely inside his Beverly Hills mansion.
In one of the documentary's standout memories, Murphy remembers an indecent proposal-style encounter with actor Yul Brynner on his 21st birthday. "
How would you like to go back to my apartment with my wife and I and party?" he says Brynner asked.
"Did he want me to f--- his wife? Now I wish I would have went – the story would end better."
The moment is delivered, like much of the film, with a shrug and a laugh, a reminder of how quickly he learned to navigate a world obsessed with his rising star.
The Ego as a Shield
Eddie Murphy insisted fame never dragged him into drugs or chaos.
Fame, Murphy insists, never got its claws into him.
He avoided the drugs, alcohol and chaos that enveloped so many other young celebrities and cost them their lives, with the documentary listing Michael Jackson, Prince and Whitney Houston as casualties of a spiraling showbiz life.
Murphy boasts in the documentary: "My biggest blessing is not my comedic talent. It is that I love myself and I knew what I wanted to do really, really early.
"That's why I didn't fall into any traps. At the root of it all I love myself."
According to a long-time associate who worked with him in the early 1980s, that confidence was more than personality – it was survival.
They told RadarOnline.com: "Eddie's ego was enormous even back then, but it was a shield. He believed he was going to make it, and that belief kept him from chasing the same demons everyone else was chasing."
Another early collaborator echoed the sentiment. He said: "That giant ego saved his life. He thought he was too important to throw anything away on drugs or wild living. It kept him focused when so many people around him were falling apart."
From 'SNL' to Superstardom
A longtime associate said Eddie Murphy’s giant ego acted as a shield.
Murphy also credits the stability brought by his stepfather, Vernon Lynch, a part-time boxer who entered his life after the death of his wildman biological father, Charles Edward Murphy, when the future comedian was seven.
"It's a sweet blessing to have a man like that come into your life," he says. "The example that he set… I feel I'm the man I am because of him."
By 19, Murphy was a sensation on Saturday Night Live, quickly distinguishing himself among a cast that included future film stars Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd.
It was producer Jeffrey Katzenberg who pushed for him to land his breakthrough role opposite Nick Nolte in 48 Hours.
"The first two weeks of 48 Hours, they wanted to fire me because they were like, 'This isn't working,'" Murphy says.
"And (Katzenberg) came to them like, 'No, don't fire him, there's something there,' and they didn't fire me and we've just been cool since."
His superstardom surged again with Beverly Hills Cop in 1984. Even then, he said no to the drugs offered by idols such as John Belushi and Robin Williams.
"I'm standing there with two heroes. I wasn't even curious. I was just not with it. I never tried cocaine," he declared.
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Moving With the Winds of Change
Murphy said loving himself protected him from the traps that ruined his peers.
Murphy's ambition soon expanded beyond comedy.
After Coming to America, inspired by his desire to meet someone who knew nothing of his fame, he became more outspoken about the treatment of Black actors in Hollywood.
At the 1988 Oscars, he declared: "I just feel that we have to be recognised as a people… black people will not ride the caboose of society."
Being Eddie reveals a performer who sees his career as a process of moving with, not fighting, the winds of change in showbiz.
He says in the film: "I don't force anything. It's not a rowboat, it's a sailboat. I'm not trying to be or trying to get to – I just am."
Along with never taking hard drugs, Murphy doesn't drink and didn't smoke a joint until he was 30.
