Murphy met with Ed Wood writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who turned out to be fans of Moore and were keen to sign on. You have to be inspired by a guy like that.” The thing that makes it happen is his belief in himself. The movie version of Moore, his portrayer says, has a dream but none of the attributes necessary to make it a reality: “He has the least amount of talent, he doesn’t have the looks, he doesn’t have the equipment, he’s surrounded himself with a bunch of people that have never done it before. “I love Ed Wood, I love Bowfinger, that I did with Steve Martin.” “I have a soft spot for movies about misfits making movies,” Murphy confides. ![]() It was back in the early 2000s that Murphy, sparked by the story of the original movie and after seeing Moore perform stand-up at a Los Angeles club, started developing his Dolemite project (on which he is also a producer). Since that explosive start, he has had some massive hits ( The Nutty Professor and Dr Dolittle series among them), the odd high-profile miss (like 2002’s The Adventures Of Pluto Nash), earned a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for 2006’s Dreamgirls and amassed a filmography with an aggregate worldwide gross of more than $7bn. Dolemite became an underground classic of the mid-’70s blaxploitation movement and was followed by a string of other action comedies headlining Moore, whose vocal style made him an influence on the development of hip-hop and earned him the nickname ‘The Godfather of Rap.’īy contrast, Murphy, in his own words, “got blasted out there” while he was still a teenager, joining the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1981 and within a year starting work on a run of big-budget movies - including 48 Hrs., Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop and Coming To America - that would make him a comedy superstar by decade’s end. As recounted in the film, Moore rounded up a crew of friends, students and other misfits, and self-financed the production of a no-budget movie built around the character. Moore, who died in 2008, was a middle-aged showbiz struggler when he invented the stage persona of Dolemite: a pimp with a cane, an outrageous wardrobe and an arsenal of obscenely funny tales. “The one thing we have in common is we’re comedians.” “Maybe one of the reasons I’m fascinated with Rudy Ray Moore is because his career is the polar opposite of what happened to me,” says Murphy, who picked up a Globe nomination in the best actor, musical or comedy category, for his funny and surprisingly touching performance in the film. Murphy, though, suggests that it is what sets him and Moore apart - not what they have in common - that drew him to Moore’s story, as told in the Golden Globe-nominated comedy Dolemite Is My Name. ![]() Like Eddie Murphy, Rudy Ray Moore was a comedian who parlayed a talent for raunchy stand-up into a run of albums and movies.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |