Actors Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson flex comedy muscles in heist comedy The Pickup
Eddie Murphy (left) and Pete Davidson play a pair of armoured truck drivers in The Pickup.
LONDON – American actor-comedians Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson have teamed up for The Pickup, a heist movie that sees them sparring as a pair of incompatible armoured truck drivers.
Starring opposite Murphy, 64, was 'a bucket list thing' for Davidson, 31, who had admired Murphy's work since he was seven.
Unlike their characters in The Pickup – which streams on Prime Video from Aug 6 – the New York natives had much in common.
'Pete comes from SNL,' Murphy said, referring to sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live (1975 to present). 'He's a stand-up comic. We're both from the East Coast. I love to get into a scene with somebody else that's funny, improvise with them and start playing.'
In the movie, Murphy's Russell Pierce and Davidson's Travis Stolly are on a routine round of cash pickups when they get targeted by criminals. Things get personal when Travis discovers that the thieves are led by his one-night-stand (Keke Palmer) from the night before, and the life of Russell's hot-headed wife (Eva Longoria) comes under threat.
The duo must pull together to save the day.
The script, by Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider, served as their blueprint, and American director Tim Story (Fantastic Four, 2005; Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, 2007) encouraged them to go off it, said the two leads.
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'We would do one as written and then Tim and everyone was like, 'Just go nuts', and we would end up just trying to one-up each other. We were just trying to make each other laugh,' said Davidson.
Palmer added: 'They were improvising constantly and it was really sweet to see. It's so cool because you see two different generations.'
(From left) American actors Pete Davidson, Keke Palmer and Eddie Murphy at the world premiere of The Pickup in Los Angeles on July 27.
PHOTO: AFP
The generational differences also seeped into the scenes, with the fighting taking its toll on Russell's body.
'Usually in these types of movies or my early movies like Beverly Hills Cop and 48 Hrs, I was the young maverick, and now I'm the ol der guy,' said Murphy, referring to the 1984 and 1982 action comedies.
He has been making movies for 43 years and said new challenges were few and far between.
'I've played different ethnicities and genders. I've been inanimate, I've played spaceships. I've played every type of role you could possibly imagine,' he said, but added he was working on 'something fresh and new'.
Murphy was referring to his starring role in the biopic of American singer George Clinton, who led the 1960s music collective Parliament-Funkadelic.
'We're doing his life. And there's no one like George. So, I'll be in uncharted waters.' REUTERS
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