Eddie Murphy on His First Christmas Movie, ‘Candy Cane Lane’
It’s hard to believe that Eddie Murphy has never done a Christmas movie before. He shared that he’s been in the business for 47 years, starting at the age of 15, but never done a real Christmas movie, until his most recent, Candy Cane Lane.
“I thought this script was unique. It had all the elements that you’re supposed to have in a Christmas movie: you could watch it over and over again,” Murphy told the crowd during a Canada-exclusive Q&A. “The movies I watch — the Christmas movies — we watch them every year, all the time. I thought this could be one of those movies that families revisit.”
It’s not easy to impress Murphy, but director Reggie Hudlin certainly pulled it off. According to Murphy, the filmmaker put together a “great presentation — like, the best I’ve ever seen anybody put together. So it was like, ‘hey, this is a no brainer.‘ He just saw the whole thing from the beginning.”
[Eddie Murphy is] not sitting there trying to get you to set up his jokes. He’s actually in a scene playing with you. That’s what makes it fun and that’s what makes it work.”
Tracee Ellis Ross
Candy Cane Lane, which is now streaming on Prime Video, marks the second time that Hudlin reteams with Murphy. They worked together on the romantic comedy hit Boomerang in 1992. “When Eddie and I worked together on Boomerang, that was thirty years ago. We were both single men, living in New York. When we talked about making [Boomerang], we started talking about the clubs that we both go to,” he recalled. “We made a movie that reflected where we were in our lives. Cut to thirty years later, we’re both married men living in California with our wives and our kids and we’re Christmas-y people,” he said in a separate interview.
The film pits Murphy opposite Tracee Ellis Ross, who had never worked with the actor before. Working with Murphy, Ross said she learned “Eddie is an extraordinary film and music buff beyond belief. And the film references are pretty obscure. I watched one of them…,” she laughed, “I’m good. I’ve never been more disturbed in my life.”
Murphy shared, “I told her to watch Santa Sangre by Alejandro Jodorowsky.”
Murphy has long been a well-respected and talented actor, especially in the realm of comedy. It’s clear he takes his art seriously and understands the material that makes it work. When it comes to his collaborations, his motto is pretty simple.
“It’s not just asking, ‘are you funny?’ but, ‘do you know when it’s not funny?’ That’s even more important than ‘are you funny?’” Murphy said wisely. Murphy once told Hudlin “You get the joke,” which Hudlin deemed “the highest level of compliment [from Murphy].”
“One of the early conversations I had with Eddie was about being a dad and what the holidays mean to him. It’s how Eddie and I connected, and it’s how he connected with the character.”
Kelly Younger, screenwriter.
Ross shared the same sentiments about her co-star, adding, “Eddie is hilarious. But what makes everyone around him hilarious is [that] he’s a really generous actor. It’s not all about Eddie being the funny person in the scene. For Eddie, it’s about grounded-ness, which is why I’ve loved his comedy for so long — it’s not based on being funny, it’s based on being real. A connection has to be there for it to come across in the right way. And that’s what he does. He’s not sitting there trying to get you to set up his jokes. He’s actually in a scene playing with you. That’s what makes it fun and that’s what makes it work.”
Screenwriter Kelly Younger infused Candy Cane Lane with a lot of personal truth. Younger’s parents lived in El Segundo, while Murphy’s character (Chris) was modelled after his own father. “One of the early conversations I had with Eddie was about being a dad and what the holidays mean to him. It’s how Eddie and I connected, and it’s how he connected with the character,” he shared.
The film also involved special effects, one of which makes the cast appear like tiny ornaments. It was an aspect that Murphy had to work on. He’s someone who prefers to be in control, but — this time around —he had to trust the process.
“We had a good director steering the way through it. That’s how we do it. Directors make movies and actors are in the movies.”
Eddie Murphy
The Nutty Professor actor said, “When you see the special effects shots, those things are really time consuming — it’s awkward, and it’s just a lot of work doing a sequence like that. […] It’s like putting a jigsaw puzzle together when you’re doing those sequences. So it was just long and frustrating; that’s where I feel like I don’t have any control. I don’t know what’s going on.” With highly-technical scenes, Murphy said he had to “trust everybody else to make sure it’s right.”
He credits Hudlin for his direction and guidance. “The only way we were able to do something like that is because we had a good director steering the way through it. That’s how we do it. Directors make movies and actors are in the movies.”
Candy Cane Lane is now streaming on Prime Video.
