Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall in ‘Coming to America’
Credit: Everett<\/i><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Coming to America<\/em><\/a> almost didn’t make it to the big screen.<\/p>\n The 1988 comedy classic starring Eddie Murphy<\/a> and Arsenio Hall<\/a> was a commercial success, earning $288 million worldwide for Paramount Pictures \u2014 but the studio initially passed on the film.<\/p>\n “They turned Coming to America<\/em> down,” Hall revealed on the Conan O\u2019Brien Needs a Friend<\/em><\/a> podcast. “We went and pitched it at Paramount and they said, ‘No, thank you.’ And we were like, ‘Give us some notes. What should we do?’ And they were like, “We’re not sure, but you know, it’s a fish out of water. We’ve seen this a billion times.'”<\/p>\n Paramount president Ned Tanen did offer constructive feedback: “How about if the people you meet in America are played by Eddie?”<\/p>\n Murphy had shot to fame as a standout on Saturday Night Live<\/em><\/a>, but left in 1984 after four seasons to focus on his film career. All these years later, Tanen reasoned, \u201cEverybody wants to see Eddie do characters again. Everybody misses SNL<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n So Murphy and Hall, an up-and-coming comic, went back to the drawing board. And they came up with the now-iconic barbershop scene, in which Murphy plays not only main character Prince Akeem, but also barbershop owner Clarence and Saul, a Jewish customer.<\/p>\n Hall was still an up-and-coming comic, known for his television appearances. But he says Murphy pitched him to also play multiple characters in addition to Semmi, Akeem\u2019s personal aide, like Reverend Brown, Morris the barber, and \u201cExtremely Ugly Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>EW Dispatch newsletter<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s Eddie that said, \u2018hey, I saw Arsenio do stand up on this HBO<\/a> thing. And he does this thing about Jesse Jackson. I know he can do a great preacher and we can come up with some barbers,\u2019\u201d Hall recalled to O\u2019Brien. \u201cAnd Eddie came up with the specific characters. And I just sat there shaking because I\u2019m like, I got to do characters with Eddie Murphy\u2026 So I was a nervous wreck going into Coming to America<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Arsenio Hall and Eddie Murphy reunited for ‘Coming 2 America’ in 2021 When the film was released in June 1988, it was a box-office smash and Paramount’s highest-grosser of the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>
Credit: Courtesy of Amazon Studios<\/i><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n