Eddie Murphy Admits He Was Angry When He Didn’t Win the Oscar for “Dreamgirls ”… but Not for the Obvious Reason

It was supposed to be Eddie Murphy‘s big night.

Going into the 2007 Academy Awards on Feb. 25, 2007, Eddie Murphy was considered the clear frontrunner to take home the Oscar for best supporting actor for his dramatic performance in the 2006 movie musical Dreamgirls. He had already swept the major televised precursors, winning in the category at the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Critics Choice Awards.

Murphy had never received better reviews in his entire career, and the film was a big hit. Done deal, right? But when Rachel Weisz, who had won best supporting actress the previous year for The Constant Gardener, opened up the envelope, the Oscar went to… Little Miss Sunshine‘s Alan Arkin.

Although Murphy clapped politely after Arkin’s name was announced (along with his fellow losing nominees: Little Children‘s Jackie Earle Haley, Blood Diamond‘s Djimon Hounsou and The Departed‘s Mark Wahlberg), he was angry on the inside. But as he says in the new Netflix documentary Being Eddie, which covers the legendary comedian and actors life and career, he was upset because he had gotten all dressed up for nothing.

“Not winning the Oscar or not winning anything is not the mindf— for me,” the famously reclusive performer, 64, says in the documentary. “The mindf— for me is that I get dressed and come to the thing, ’cause I would usually not go to award shows.”

He continues: “That’s… whenever I lose, I’m like, ‘These motherf—ers made me come all the way down.’ I could have f—ing lost at home. I’m all in the f—ing tuxedo. What a… a waste of time. I’m never, like, ‘Oh, I didn’t win.’ I’m like, ‘Hey, make me come down here for nothing?’ ”

“It’s always wonderful to win stuff, but if I don’t win, I don’t give a f—,” he adds. “I still come home, and it’s… I’m still Eddie in the morning.”

Murphy’s costar Jennifer Hudson, who had graduated from American Idol loser to movie star with Dreamgirls, ended up winning best supporting actress that same evening.

That’s not Murphy’s only commentary on the Oscars in the documentary. Earlier, he suggests that he might have been blacklisted by the Academy for calling out racism in Hollywood while presenting the best picture award at the 1988 ceremony.

“I just want you to know I’m going to give this award, but Black people will not ride the caboose of society, and we will not bring up the rear anymore. I want you to recognize us,” he says in an archival clip from the 1988 Oscars.

In Being Eddie, Murphy says of that moment, which he notes went unreported in the media the following day: “Every now and then, somebody will see it and be like, ‘Wow. Eddie was talking s—- at the Oscars way back then?’ I even said right before, I said, ‘I’ll probably never get an Oscar for saying this….’ And I went…. I went and did it.” 

Being Eddie is now streaming on Netflix.