Wesley Snipes Remembers Auditioning For The Original ‘Coming To America’
By Ethan Anderton/Dec. 28, 2020 11:30 am EST
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the star of Blade and White Men Can’t Jump recalled auditioning for the role of Darryl, the heir to the Soul Glo empire played by future ER star Eriq LaSalle. Snipes remembered:
Darryl also happened to be the douchebag boyfriend of Lisa McDowell (Shari Headley), who Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) had fallen in love with. It wasn’t a huge part, but it might have given Snipes a chance to have a career breakthrough a little bit sooner. Thankfully, Major League came around in 1989 followed by a string of movies like King of New York, Mo’ Better Blues, New Jack City, Jungle Fever, White Men Can’t Jump, and Demolition Man, making Snipes a big star. But Snipes kept wanting to work with Eddie Murphy after all these years. The actor said:
“I auditioned for the first Coming to America, but I didn’t get to audition in front of Eddie. After three call backs, I ended up losing the role to Eriq La Salle.”
Thankfully, Snipes already got a chance to do that with Netflix’s Dolemite Is My Name. And now he’s taking a victory lap with a role in Coming 2 America. But Snipes was still nervous for this outing despite working with Murphy not too long ago. He said:
”Ever since I saw that [Coming to America], I’ve wanted to work with Eddie…I wanted to check the great grandmaster comedian Eddie Murphy off my bucket list."
“Working with him was surreal, joyful, hilarious, and, at times, a little scary, because you know he lives in the world of funny and you want to at least be in the room. I don’t know if it was toe to toe, I’d characterize it more like riding along, and, in some cases, hanging on. If you watch his films over the years, you can tell that a lot of the comedians in some way have a residue of Eddie’s style, and I even think some of us actors from that era. He’s so great that you pick up little things, maybe it’s timing or a little look. Eddie can convey the subtleties and humor in life and materialize our inner thoughts. He can say all of the stuff that we wish we had the nerve to say.”
