‘Beverly Hills Cop 4’ Star Eddie Murphy On Reprising His Axel Foley Role 40 Years Later: “It Was A Rough One”

Eddie Murphy is returning to the Beverly Hills Cop universe and reprising his role of Axel Foley in a fourth installment of the franchise.

Ahead of the 40th anniversary of the release of the 1984 film, Murphy returns to play Foley and is opening up about the difficulties of getting back into the action sequences.

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“It was a hard one,” Murphy told People in an interview. “I did Axel Foley when I was in my 20s. I am not in my 20s anymore. It was an action movie. So it was a rough one. But we got through it.”

The action comedy directed by Martin Brest centers on Axel Foley, a Detroit detective who travels to Beverly Hills, California to solve the murder of his best friend.

“It’s a really physical movie and I had to do some physical stuff…. I like to be on the couch, I don’t like to be jumping over and shooting and running,” he said of filming the action sequences in the sequel Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley. “And I had to do some jumping and shooting and running. And as a result… at the end of the movie, I had a knee brace and my back is messed up. But the movie is gonna be special.”

The sequel will see the return of OG cast members Judge Reinhold and John Ashton‘s Detective Billy Rosewood and Sgt. Taggart, Paul Reiser and Bronson Pinchot. New additions to the universe include Kevin Bacon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Taylour Paige.

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