Call it an equal chance laugh, but Louie Anderson didn’t appear in “Coming to America” in 1988, because stars Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall were dying to share the screen with him.
When the two appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to promote the sequel, “Coming 2 America,” they revealed the real reason.
“I like Louie, but I think we were forced to put Louie on,” Hall, 65, told the host. “We were forced to introduce a white person.”
Murphy, 59, agreed: “[The studio was] like, “There has to be a white person in the movie.” I said, “What?” So who was the funniest white guy around? I knew Louie was cool, so Louie got into the movie. ”
If there is any doubt about the veracity of this story, Hall referred to the evidence. “It was official,” Hall continued. “I had a list. They gave me a list of three white guys. They said, ‘Who would you rather work with?’ I said Louie. ”
Anyway, Anderson, who won an Emmy for her performance in the FX comedy “Baskets,” must have done something right: she kept coming. He updates his role as Maurice, a goofball fast food worker at McDowell’s with a golden arch.
In addition to Hall’s list, Anderson claimed to have done something to lubricate the casting wheels. Back in the late 1980s, while dining at Ivy – a hot spot for celebrities in Beverly Hills – Anderson saw Murphy and his entourage. He told the waiter to put Murphy and the company tab on his credit card. But while Anderson was telling the Sway in the Morning satellite radio team in 2017, he instructed the waiter, “Don’t tell him until I leave. I’m not doing it to be a big hit. I do it because I’m from the Midwest and I would [it]. ”
The next morning, Anderson received a phone call from Murphy. Not only did he thank her for the gesture – “No one ever bought me anything,” Murphy told Anderson – but he also said he wanted to cast Anderson in a small film called “Coming to America.” .
Astonished by the comic karma, Anderson said, “That’s life, isn’t it? It was the best $ 660 I’ve ever spent. ”