10 Timely Facts About “48 Hrs.”

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Andrew LaSane and Mental Floss present 10 Timely Facts About 48 Hrs.  Here are three of my favorites…

3. NICK NOLTE AND EDDIE MURPHY WERE NOT THE STUDIO’S FIRST CHOICES.
According to The Telegraph, several actors turned down the roles of Detective Jack Cates and Reggie Hammond before Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy signed on. Mickey Rourke, Clint Eastwood, and Jeff Bridges were reportedly offered the detective role, while Gregory Hines, Richard Pryor, Howard E. Rollins Jr., and Denzel Washington all ultimately passed on playing the convict.

5. MURPHY’S PERFORMANCE WAS INSPIRED BY BRUCE LEE.
Having never been in a serious role, Eddie Murphy did not know how to be angry on camera, so he mimicked actor and martial artist Bruce Lee. “There’s a scene in 48 Hrs. where I’m coming down the alley and there’s all this neon and I’m supposed to be intense, but I had no reference,” Murphy told Byron Allen in an interview for the 25th anniversary edition DVD ofEddie Murphy: Delirious. “So I was doing my Bruce Lee impression, and I still do it until this day. When I’m mad on screen if I pull my gun out, it may not look like Bruce Lee because I look nothing like him, but on the inside, my face, all the sh*t I’m doing with my eyes … it’s all my Bruce Lee impression.”

9. 48 HRS. LED TO ANOTHER SNL MILESTONE FOR MURPHY.
Having already been the youngest cast member years prior, Eddie Murphy was also the first Saturday Night Live cast member in history to host the show while he was still on it, but that was not the plan. On December 11, 1982, Nick Nolte was supposed to host, but he was sick and had to back out at the last second. “When Nick got here, and got off the plane, he vomited on my shirt,” Murphy said in his opening monologue, “and we realized Nick was too sick to do the show. And that’s too bad, because Nick was gonna be in some real great stuff tonight.” He added that because the audience came to see someone from the film, he was going to be the host, and he famously kicked off the episode with the line: “Live, from New York, it’s The Eddie Murphy Show!”