In the latest installment in the “Beverly Hills Cop” franchise, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” premiering on Netflix next week, “Zola” star Taylour Paige plays daughter to Eddie Murphy’s classic character Axel Foley, but it seems she’d rather be taking on his older roles. A huge fan of Murphy’s reinterpretation of the Jerry Lewis comedy “The Nutty Professor,” she said in a recent piece for The New York Times that she couldn’t help but quote it back to him on repeat.
“I recited every line to him almost every day I shot with him,” Paige said. “I had a lot of questions, like, ‘How do you play six to eight people believably?’”
Paige has spoken previously of her admiration for Murphy. In a profile for Empire, she said, “I grew up watching ‘The Nutty Professor’ and ‘Dr. Dolittle.’ It was like I knew him — it was surreal.”
Because of this, she couldn’t help but focus on getting the comedy star to laugh, almost as a way of knowing her scenes with him were working. She said of the shoot, “The objective was to try and get the man who made the world laugh to laugh. I found it quite fun to crack him.”
Paige added later that despite her fervor, “The Nutty Professor” wasn’t the only movie she watches and though she does spend a lot of time on YouTube, she does have pretty high standards when it comes to her viewing experiences.
“YouTube is my favorite social technology. I can watch a whole class on Beethoven, listen to accents or learn about color therapy. At the same rate, I love films, so I love the Criterion Collection,” said Paige. “It’s so thoughtful and curated. There’s often a lot of interviews that aren’t on YouTube. Like I can watch an Ingmar Bergman interview explaining how he made ‘Autumn Sonata.’”
Paige also seems to be an avid reader, taking in material ranging from the works of Nora Ephron to the writing of Carl Jung.
“I’m reading this book, ‘The Dud Avocado,’ about this American girl living in Paris, and this Nora Ephron book, ‘I Feel Bad About My Neck.’ I’m very A.D.H.D., so I read a lot of things at once,” said Paige to The New York Times. ”I just ordered 10 and they all came to $70. Of the 10, I’m excited to read ‘Answer to Job’ by Carl Jung. I love him — his whole thing is we’re here to make the unconscious conscious.”
“Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” starts streaming on Wednesday, July 3 on Netflix.
