Eddie Murphy has told some outrageous Hollywood stories over the years, but one particular moment from his early fame continues to resurface—and the latest retelling arrives in Netflix’s Being Eddie.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the comedian revisits an encounter from his 21st birthday that involved veteran actor Yul Brynner, Brynner’s wife, and a very unexpected invitation.
According to Murphy, the run-in took place at Studio 54, where he was celebrating turning 21 at the height of the club’s notoriety. Brynner, already a Hollywood icon known for The King and I and The Ten Commandments, approached Murphy with his wife by his side.
Murphy says the couple asked if he wanted to join them after the party, offering what seemed at the time like a friendly after-hours hang.
Murphy passed on the offer immediately, brushing it off as just another eccentric moment in a famously eccentric venue. What he didn’t realize—at least not then—was that the suggestion may have been a lot more direct than he understood in the moment.
In the documentary, he explains that the meaning only became clear years later, once he started replaying the details: Brynner’s casual tone, his wife smiling, and the insistence that all three of them “go back” together.
“So many years later, I thought, ‘Party? Oh…party,’” Murphy says in the film, noting how obvious the sexual subtext seems now. The comedian adds that once he pieced it all together, he realized Brynner may have been inviting him into something far beyond a typical birthday toast.
Murphy has mentioned the story before—he’s brought it up in past interviews, including a visit to David Letterman’s former late-night show—but Being Eddie is the first time he lays it out with full context. He even jokes that the story would have sounded more dramatic if he’d accepted, laughing that he missed the opportunity for a much wilder chapter in his memoir.
That moment is only one part of the documentary’s look into Murphy’s rapid rise. He reflects on joining Saturday Night Live right out of high school and navigating rooms filled with stars who were deeply immersed in the era’s party culture. Murphy says he never joined in.
He recalls nights out with John Belushi and Robin Williams, where cocaine was openly offered, but he refused every time. He also shares that he didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, and didn’t try marijuana until well into adulthood.
Being Eddie is now streaming on Netflix.