Eddie Murphy Says He Declined to Do Cocaine with Robin Williams and John Belushi in the 1980s

The moment helped the actor realize he “just wasn’t interested in” drugs

Eddie Murphy says Robin Williams and John Belushi played a critical role in convincing him to stay away from drugs.

While appearing on The New York Times’ The Interview podcast, the actor, 63, recalled a night out with the comedy icons in the 1980s, during which he declined their invitation to do cocaine.

The trio were out at a bar, and Murphy was just 19 at the time, he recalled. “It was me, [John] Belushi and Robin Williams,” the Saturday Night Live alum said on the podcast. “They start doing coke, and I was like, ‘No, I’m cool.’ ”

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Remembering his thought process in that moment, the Beverly Hills Cop star said, “I wasn’t taking some moral stance. I just wasn’t interested in it. To not have the desire or the curiosity, I’d say that’s providence.”

“God was looking over me in that moment,” he added.

Murphy said that, especially as an up-and-coming comedian, he did not want to do anything that could jeopardize his success.

“When you get famous really young, especially a Black artist, it’s like living in a minefield,” he said on The Interview. “At any moment, you could step on a mine. Any moment, something could happen that can undo everything.”

“But I was oblivious to the fact that I was in a minefield,” he added.

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Elaborating on that analogy further, Murphy — who made his SNL debut at just 19 years old — said that the bombs were “just everything.”

“Just imagine being a young person and having the world placed at your feet,” he said. “Nobody's saying ‘no,’ and everybody wants to be around you. You try all types of s--- and get caught up in all kinds of stuff."

"That's what destroys people," he added.

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Belushi died of an overdose in 1982 at age 33, while Williams died by suicide in 2014 after a lifelong struggle with severe depression. He was 63.

In the podcast, Murphy said that the fates of legendary entertainers like Prince, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley “cautionary tales for me” — and the reason he steers clear of drugs to this day.

“I don’t drink,” he revealed. “I smoked a joint for the first time when I was 30 years old. The extent of drugs is some weed.”

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