What did Eddie Murphy say at the 1988 Oscars? Actor reveals Robbin Williams tried to dissuade him from delivering critical speech at ceremony

While revisiting his early Oscar experience during a recent interview, Eddie Murphy recalled how his 1988 Best Picture presentation almost didn’t happen.

The actor told Entertainment Weekly that his manager had informed him about the Academy’s invitation, but his first instinct was to turn it down.

“I’m not going because they haven’t recognized Black people in motion pictures,” Murphy told the Oscars audience that night.

“And I’ll probably never win an Oscar for saying this, but hey, what the hey, I gotta say it. Actually, I might not be in any trouble because the way it’s been going is about every 20 years we get one, so we ain’t due to about 2004. So by that time, this will all be blown over,” he added.

At that time, only three Black actors had won Oscars in the Academy’s 60-year history: Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, and Louis Gossett Jr. Denzel Washington would become the fourth two years later, earning Best Supporting Actor for Glory. Eddie Murphy ended his speech with conviction, saying,

“So I came down here to give the award. I said, ‘But I just feel that we have to be recognized as a people. I just want you to know I’m gonna give this award, but Black people will not ride the caboose of society, and we will not bring up the rear anymore. And I want you to recognize us.’”

Recently, Eddie Murphy shared that Robin Williams had warned him backstage that his planned remarks might not land as humorously as he hoped.

Eddie Murphy opens up about controversial Oscars remarks and Robin Williams’ advice

Eddie Murphy revisited his 1988 Oscars appearance while promoting his Netflix documentary Being Eddie, with Entertainment Weekly. The actor and comedian reflected on presenting Best Picture to Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor and using the opportunity to criticize the Academy for its lack of recognition of Black actors.

Murphy said he believed the comment would attract major media attention, but he later discovered that it barely registered in coverage the following day.

“I remember being with Robin Williams backstage, I was like, ‘I’m gonna say this.’ And he goes to me, like, ‘But why go there?’ I was like, ‘Oh, you don’t think it’s funny?’ It was more, ‘Is it funny?’ Rather than, ‘It’s controversial.’ I was trying to be funny and say a little something, but be funny too. Have a little edge to what I said,” Murphy shared.

Murphy also said he “wasn’t thinking of the ramifications” of his decision to speak out. “I was just trying to be funny in the moment,” he added, “and I wanted what I was saying to be relevant.”

Eddie Murphy on making peace, milestones, and the story behind Being Eddie

In his recent sit-down with The Hollywood Reporter, Eddie Murphy spoke about how time and perspective helped him put old conflicts to rest. The comedy star revealed he had reconciled with longtime collaborator John Landis, who appears in the documentary, and even with the Saturday Night Live crew ahead of his 2019 hosting comeback. He also offered a playful take on how he imagines accepting a future honorary Oscar and hinted that one reboot project still has his attention, if the long-promised script ever lands on his desk.

Asked what inspired him to open up for Being Eddie and whether he placed any restrictions on what could be covered, Eddie Murphy said the process was wide open from the start.

“There were no guidelines. It wasn’t going to be this type of documentary. [When] it started out, I was going to do stand-up comedy again. In 2011, I stopped making movies for about six years. When I got off the couch, I was like, ‘Let’s do Dolemite [Is My Name], and go back to Saturday Night Live, and do stand-up,’" Eddie Murphy explained.

"We were going to do this documentary just to show what it’s like to put a [stand-up] show together. Then COVID hit, and everything shut down. Afterwards, I was like, ‘I’m not sure if I want to do stand-up,’ because I was paranoid about COVID. We worked on this thing for five, six years, and now, coincidentally, it’s my 50th year in show business — a milestone for anybody in any business,” he added.

Eddie Murphy reflects on Oscar loss and weighs on a possible return to Stand-Up

Eddie Murphy also addressed his awards history during the conversation. When asked about not having won an Oscar and the perception that comedians must move beyond comedy for critical recognition, he replied:

“I never went like, ‘They didn’t take me seriously because I’m a comedian.’ I don’t even think like that. There are things that I’ve done that nobody else could do. Nobody else could do Nutty Professor. With Jim Carrey, nobody else could do The Grinch. To me, the performance in The Grinch is just as amazing as Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. I know comedians that blow dudes off the stage that have got Oscars.”

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Eddie Murphy was then asked about his possible return to stand-up, a subject hinted at in his Netflix documentary Being Eddie.

“I’m open to the idea of doing stand-up again, I got to be having fun for it to work, so if it hits me like that, I’ll go right up there and do it,” he shared.

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