Joseph Gordon-Levitt thought about his late brother “every day” while filming ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’.
The 43-year-old actor – who plays LAPD officer Bobby Abbott in the upcoming movie – had always admired his co-star Eddie Murphy, but it was his sibling Dan, who died from an apparent overdose in 2010, that was a massive fan of the star.
He told Empire magazine: “He sadly died 14 years ago but when I was growing up, my older brother was a huge Eddie Murphy fan. ‘SNL’, ‘Beverly Hills Cop’, ‘I’m Gumby, dammit!’
“So I have a really warm place in my heart for Eddie as a performer.
“I thought about Dan every day [during the shoot]. All the time. And I talked to Eddie about that.”
Joseph and Eddie quickly hit it off thanks to their shared passion for music.
Joseph explained: “The first time we really started improvising together was in a car.
“And shooting car scenes, you can’t get out for big chunks of time.
“On that first day, waiting for the rig to reposition, we started talking about the song ‘Let the Good Times Roll’.
“The original version, the Harry Nilsson cover, and then other songs with that phrase in, by Sam Cooke and Jimi Hendrix…
“Eddie’s kind of a nerd about those things, as am I.”
While Joseph’s character in the film is “a bit straight-laced”, he insisted he still got to have a lot of fun.
He said: “This character is a bit strait-laced – I am an actual Beverly Hills cop, whereas Axel Foley is a cop from Detroit who finds himself in Beverly Hills – but he’s not a simple straight man.
“I also get my licks in. I wouldn’t be living up to this crazy opportunity if I wasn’t going to have a few myself.
“We got to do some really fun stuff.”
