These comments highlight what is, perhaps, most remarkable about Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which arrives 30 years later: the Axel Foley in it has aged, of course, but it’s still the same Axel Foley we know and love. Murphy says it was a priority to acknowledge the passage of time in the new film. “I’m doing the age-appropriate version of Axel Foley,” he says. “Axel Foley is 21 in the first movie, and has no kids and is a legal adult just recently. Now I’m a grandpa, in my 60s. It’s a whole different person.”
Age-appropriate or not, Murphy is positively firing on all cylinders as Axel. Demonstrating clear affection for the man over many of the others he has played over the years, Murphy says reinhabiting the character was a breeze because he never got a chance to leave Axel behind.
“[It was] easy for me because Beverly Hills Cop is always on,” he explains. “It’s always on TV, it’s always on cable. It’s in the background, it’s part of the lexicon. It’s around. So it was really easy to go and do the character again.” Considering it’s the character he is arguably most associated with (for people who didn’t grow up on the Shrek movies), I am tempted to ask how close Axel Foley is to Eddie Murphy. “I’m not like anybody in my movies,” responds Murphy. “[It’s] a persona. I play extroverts on-screen, but I’m an introverted person.”
Murphy’s improvisational skills were famously deployed throughout the original to great comedic effect. Axel’s interactions with Bronson Pinchot’s snooty art gallery worker Serge, are an oft-cited example, and the loose, organic dynamic Axel builds with Taggart and Rosewood rings wonderfully true, with Murphy ready to riff. Those skills are on full display in the new one, and I ask Murphy what preparation is required to improvise in character. It turns out, none. “It just kind of happens,” he says, casually betraying his genius. “I’m always saying I’m not a method actor, but I have my method: my method is an off/on switch. I don’t do prep, I don’t read the scene before we do it. I come out to the set and be like, ‘What scene are we shooting?’”