Eddie Murphy defends Norbit despite rumours it cost him an Oscar

Eddie Mur­phy isn’t back­ing down from his love for Nor­bit, even if some believe it derailed his awards-sea­son momen­tum near­ly two decades ago

Speak­ing on Complex’s 360 With Speedy Mor­manx, the icon­ic come­di­an addressed long-run­ning spec­u­la­tion that his 2007 com­e­dy hurt his chances of win­ning Best Sup­port­ing Actor for Dream­girls.

The film’s release came just weeks after his Oscar nom­i­na­tion for play­ing soul singer James “Thun­der” Ear­ly in Bill Condon’s big-screen musi­cal

He added, “Nor­bit came out right after I got that Oscar nom­i­na­tion. There were arti­cles like, ‘How can he get an Oscar, he did this?’ They’re two dif­fer­ent movies.”

Mur­phy, who co-wrote the film with his late broth­er Char­lie Mur­phy, called the slap­stick farce “fun­ny” despite its crit­i­cal drub­bing

He also addressed the mul­ti­ple Gold­en Rasp­ber­ry Awards the movie picked up, includ­ing worst pic­ture and worst actor of the decade

He shared, “They gave me Razz­ie Awards for worst actress, worst actor and worst actor of the decade. And I was like, ‘Come on now, shit ain’t that bad.’ I like Nor­bit. To this day, I like Nor­bit

Released on Feb­ru­ary 9, 2007, Nor­bit saw Mur­phy take on sev­er­al roles, includ­ing the meek title char­ac­ter and his dom­i­neer­ing wife, Rasputia

The com­e­dy hit cin­e­mas just days after Mur­phy received a best sup­port­ing actor nom­i­na­tion for Dream­girls, in which he played flam­boy­ant soul singer James “Thun­der” Ear­ly

At the time, Mur­phy was wide­ly seen as the favourite, hav­ing already won at the Gold­en Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

But Nor­bit was mauled by crit­ics, and when Alan Arkin claimed the Oscar for Lit­tle Miss Sun­shine, indus­try chat­ter quick­ly pinned the loss on what became known as the “Nor­bit effect.”

Crit­ics were scathing, with the movie hold­ing a 9% score on Rot­ten Toma­toes, but audi­ences turned out in droves.

It opened at num­ber one in North Amer­i­ca and went on to make over $159 mil­lion glob­al­ly

While Nor­bit took home sev­er­al Gold­en Rasp­ber­ry Awards, it also received an Oscar nom­i­na­tion, not for Mur­phy, but for Best Make­up, thanks to his elab­o­rate trans­for­ma­tions.