Comedy icon Eddie Murphy has a big family. And on March 5, one of his 10 children will star alongside him in perhaps the most anticipated comedy of 2021. Eddie Murphy’s 19-year-old daughter, Bella Murphy, makes its cinema debut in Coming 2 America, the sequel to his beloved 1988 comedy Coming to America. Read on to find out why Bella is just starting to act professionally now and about the scene her father threatened (kidding!) To “punish her”. And for another piece from the old block, See James Gandolfini’s Lookalike Son as Tony in Sopranos Prequel.
The sequel – which will air on Amazon Prime on March 5 – begins with Akeem de Zamunda and his family more than 30 years after the events of the first film. Akeem is still married to Lisa (Shari Headley), who he met on his trip to New York City, and they have three daughters. He then discovers that he also has an adult son (Jermaine Fowler) of an affair he had with another woman in Queens (Leslie Jones), before meeting Lisa. Having a male heir complicates things for Akeem, since his eldest daughter Meeka (KiKi Layne) would be happy to accept the challenge if Zamunda allowed a woman to rule.
Bella Murphy plays Omma, one of Akeem and Lisa’s youngest daughters, and she quickly fell in love with the character. “Omma is super smart, a little naughty, and she’s super cool,” Bella said Essence.
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Speaking for ET Online, Eddie shared the most important limit he set for his children, if they wanted to follow him to act. “I said [Bella] that she couldn’t work until she was 18, but she started taking acting classes, she was doing an acting school and stuff for maybe two years before that, “he said.
When she learned of her age-appropriate role in her father’s new comedy, Bella was interested, but she wasn’t just handing over the job. “She auditioned and got the part,” said Eddie ET.
Bella isn’t just making her debut in a longlong– expected sequel to a comedy classic, she also had her family by her side. “Being able to make my first film with my dad is very special,” she said Essence. “I am happy with life.”
To meet another show business family, see How Mary-Kate and Ashley prevented Elizabeth Olsen from being a child star.
“I was really nervous,” Bella recalled speaking to ET Online. “You know, I didn’t want people to think I was doing this just because I can or didn’t want people to watch it and think, ‘Oh, this is his daughter because she can’t keep up with everyone,’ do you know?”
She also remembered a particularly stressful scene in which the father-daughter relationship in real life emerged on the set. During a choreographed action scene, Bella was very close to hitting Eddie with a bow stick instead of hitting where he was ready to block. “I saw his life go by before his eyes and we just stayed frozen there, and I was like, ‘What’s going to happen?'” Bella said. “AND [director] Craig [Brewer] shouted cut, and then, my dad said, ‘You’re grounded!’ “
His fears about wielding the weapon extended to the rest of the star cast as well. “I don’t want to hit Wesley Snipes on the head with a stick … “she shared.” It was my first film, and I don’t want to do that. “
For more celebrity kids getting big jobs, take a look at Paul Walker’s daughter has just landed her first major modeling show.
“The only thing I didn’t want to do was a bad sequel to a movie that a lot of people invested a lot,” said Eddie Essence. “Many people grew up watching Coming to America. It is special for them. So, you don’t want to stain that. “
As to why Coming to America means so much to so many viewers, the older Murphy thinks it’s because “romantic fantasy comedy” films focusing on black characters are still so rare. “Blacks, we don’t have many films like this …” he explained. “Normally, when we see ourselves on the screen, they are heavy things … We rarely get to see any escapism.”
And to find out the fate of the sequel Murphy wanted to avoid, take a look at the Worst Movie Sequence of All Time, according to Critic.