JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT ON PARTNERING UP WITH EDDIE MURPHY FOR BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXELF
you can’t get out for big chunks of time. On that first day, waiting for the rig to reposition, we TO BE FLUNG into any 40-year-old movie started talking about the song ‘Let The Good franchise as a key new character is a daunting Times Roll’. The original version, the Harry prospect. To be flung into Beverly Hills Cop, the Nilsson cover, and then other songs with that most iconic Eddie Murphy series there is… well, phrase in, by Sam Cooke and Jimi Hendrix… let’s just say that for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, cast Eddie’s kind of a nerd about those things, as am I.” as Axel Foley’s new LAPD partner Bobby Abbott, The actor, like everyone in the ’80s, grew up the heat was on, and on, and on. loving Murphy. But it was his sibling Dan who Luckily, Gordon-Levitt stayed cool as ice. was the true Foley fanatic. “He sadly died 14 For one, he has experience in playing cops. “I’ve years ago, but when I was growing up my older played a Gotham PD, a New Orleans PD, and now brother was a huge Eddie Murphy fan,” says a Beverly Hills PD,” he smiles, referring to The Gordon-Levitt. “SNL, Beverly Hills Cop, ‘I’m Dark Knight Rises and 2020 Netflix film Project Gumby, dammit!’ So I have a really warm place Power. “I have a lot of badges.” For another, he in my heart for Eddie as a performer. I thought quickly found common ground with Murphy. about [Dan] every day [during the shoot]. All “The first time we really started improvising the time. And I talked to Eddie about that.” together was in a car. And shooting car scenes, Adding to the emotion of the experience was a reunion with Bronson Pinchot. “He played
