Arsenio Hall Says Studio Forced Them to Include a White Guy in Coming to America
Fortunately that white guy was the great Louie Anderson.
Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall were guests on the March 1st episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! to discuss their new movie, Coming to America 2. The new film is a sequel to the 30-year old classic, Coming to America, originally starring Murphy and Hall. The original film is about a young African prince (Murphy) coming to America in search of a bride to avoid an arranged marriage back home. The sequel, though titled Coming to America 2, mostly takes place in the main characters’ home country of Zamunda. (If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry. It’s a fictional country.)
On the late show program, Kimmel asked specifically about Louie Anderson’s involvement in the original film. Anderson was a rising-star in stand-up comedy at the time but was struggling to break into film and television roles. He had co-stared in the pilot for ABC’s Perfect Strangers, but was replaced by another actor. He also had a very small role in the popular film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
In response to Kimmel’s question, Hall said, “I love Louie, but I think we were forced to put Louie in it.” Kimmel exclaimed, “What?” and Hall clarified, “I think we were forced to put a white guy in it.”
Murphy went to on to explain the studio’s directive, saying the film was an all-black cast. He also mentioned it being the 80s, referring to a time in Hollywood where non-white characters on screen were rare, let alone a cast with no white characters. Such films were typically relegated to “minority film” status, with studios assuming white audiences would be unlikely to watch. So perhaps without Anderson, Coming to America would have been marketed as a “black film” and never have found mainstream appeal. Murphy, imitating a hypothetical studio executive, said, “We have to have a white person…there has to be a white person in the movie!”
Regarding the decision to choose Anderson, Murphy said they got together and asked “Who’s the funniest white guy around?” The answer to that question was Louie Anderson, and he was cast in a role behind the counter at McDowell’s, a fictional fast food restaurant in the film which has no likeness to the real life McDonald’s. (McDonald’s has the Big Mac while McDowell’s has the Big Mick.)
Despite this anecdote, Louie Anderson wasn’t actually the only white person in the film. Ignoring background actors, since it might be unfair to count them, particularly in a movie taking place in New York City, one of the first characters encountered by Murphy’s and Hall’s characters after arriving in the US is played by Jake Steinfeld. Steinfeld plays an NYC taxi driver, and while he doesn’t get much screen time, he does have a few lines.
The movie also includes an easter egg for fans of Trading Places, another comedy film starring Eddie Murphy released five years before Coming to America. Appearing as two homeless men, Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy reprise their roles from Trading Places as the Duke brothers.
While not a white guy, Elaine Kagan is included in the film as well playing a telegram clerk. (What’s a telegram? It’s how your grandparents texted each other in the 1800s.) She’s only in one short scene, but it’s pretty hilarious and earned her a callout in the closing credits.
Interestingly, Kagan went on to play a secretary in Beverly Hills Cop 3, which also stars Eddie Murphy and is also directed by John Landis.
One of the notable non-black characters in Coming to America, who also happens to have a lot more screen time and lines than Louie Anderson, was actually played by Eddie Murphy himself. A Jewish man in the barber shop is played by Murphy with quite a bit of makeup and prosthetic work.
Other characters in the film are portrayed by Murphy and Hall in disguise as well. In the interview with Kimmel, Murphy explains that the makeup took 6 hours to apply and he also laments it being “a waste” because so many people don’t even realize its them. Murphy is apparently a fan of this tactic though since he famously went on to play several different characters in the Nutty Professor movies.
So surely Eddie Murphy could have played the role of the white guy behind the fast food counter, and maybe that was the plan all along. According to Hall however it was the studio wanting a white actor in the film that led to putting Anderson in the role. The sequel, which Murphy and Hall were on Kimmel’s show to promote and is now out on Amazon Prime Video, has Anderson reprising his role 30 years later along with much of the original cast from Coming to America.
How much pressure the studio put to cast “a white guy” in Coming to America, we don’t know. Eddie Murphy’s own production company produced the film, but it was distributed by Paramount Pictures. The people involved in the decision may not even remember fully 30 years after, and who knows where they are now.
