Eddie Murphy says the centre of his life is "his family and his kids".
The ‘Coming to America’ star feels it is important to be "present" in his children’s life, and that has made him more selective on what jobs he takes as he doesn’t want to pick movie roles just because "somebody flashed a big dollar sign in front of you".
He said: "My career, or what I am as an artist, that’s not at the centre of my life. At the centre of my life is my family and my kids. That’s the principal relationship, and everything comes after that. I have 10 kids, and I’m present, and I’m part of their lives. You got to have some kind of balance with career and personal life. I started making movies when I was 20, and I auditioned for SNL when I was 18, so that’s 40 years ago. So I had a little crossroads where it was like, It’s time to back off, and sit on the couch and just be Dad. Now, I just want to do stuff where there’s an emotional hook, and it’s something that I’m really into, and not just doing it because, you know, somebody flashed a big dollar sign in front of you."
And the 58-year-old actor considers himself to be an "anomaly".
He added to Vanity Fair magazine: "As I get older, I’m always cognisant of the fact that this is rare. To be an actor is a rare thing. To actually be born, the chances of you and me, and the chances of a person being born are one in 400 trillion. Just to get in – just to be here. Then on top of that you become an actor, and not just an actor, you become an actor that actually gets known globally and has some impact. Getting that after two to three years, and then to be around 40 years at this level – and being a black man – it’s just super rarefied air that I’m in. So I never got to where I was like, Oh, this sucks, because I’ve always [known] this does not happen. I’m an anomaly."
Eddie Murphy’s family at the centre of his life
