MAKING OF COMING 2 AMERICA
SECOND COMING
Thirty-three years after the beloved original, Eddie Murphy returns as Prince Akeem in COMING 2 AMERICA. Total Film chats exclusively with Murphy and his team about recreating Zamunda, reprising Reverends and revisiting an ’80s classic. WORDS JAMES MOTTRAM
All hail Prince Akeem. When Total Film is connected on Zoom to Eddie Murphy’s residence, the first thing glimpsed is an empty burgundy leather chair in front of an ornate fireplace. It’s just after midday in Los Angeles and Murphy is moving around the room in the background before he takes to his seat – or should that be throne? Murphy rarely does press, so for TF to be granted an exclusive audience with him really does feel like meeting royalty – aptly so, given we’re here to talk about Coming 2 America, the long-awaited sequel to one of Murphy’s all-time greats.
Released in 1988, Coming To America arrived when Murphy was at his height, after Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop and The Golden Child, among others, turned him into a superstar. CTA was different, showing Murphy at his sweetest as Akeem, the prince from the fictional African kingdom of Zamunda who comes to America to find his bride – and winds up in Queens, New York, where he meets Lisa (Shari Headley), the beautiful, hard-working daughter of Cleo McDowell (John Amos), owner of a fast-food restaurant that’s definitely not borrowed anything from McDonald’s.
“I think there’s a uniqueness to Coming To America,” says Murphy. “They hadn’t made a lot of movies like that, movies with Black people. As popular as it is around the world with everybody, Black people really, really love Coming To America. And I think it’s because the movie is a romanticfantasy-comedy. We don’t see that. Usually when we see ourselves on the screen, there is some drama, and the movie is about some social injustice. The actor might look into the camera and scream [at the top of his voice, leaning into his camera] ‘Wake up!’ Some heavy thing going on.”
Murphy, dressed in a jet-black t-shirt, is warming to his theme. “The movie Coming To America is all Black cast. But the movie is not about race. It’s not about any of that stuff. It’s about a guy trying to find his true love. So it’s just a human thing. And it’s refreshing when we see it because, like I said… most of the stuff that comes off the screen from us is heavy, heavy stuff. It’s not just: go escape. Coming To America is pure escapism… no matter who you are, you can relate to it.”