Eddie Murphy is making a comeback on screens with Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F and is also back on the press tour promoting his new movie, which is not always the case when he has a new project. This has led to a lot of interesting retrospective stories, such as his dinner with Marlon Brando, as told to Seth Meyers, and provided genuine insight into Murphy’s thoughts on his own work and legacy. In an interview with the New York Times, Murphy discussed his work in Bowfinger, with the interviewer suggesting it might be his best performance. Murphy, however, pointed out that he found working in the Nutty Professor movies more noteworthy, where he played different characters with the help of Rick Baker’s makeup, even dismissing the idea that he also played two characters in Bowfinger.

Expressing a personal preference, this comment is quite casual and it’s not uncommon for an artist to view their work differently depending on when or how they are asked about it. In a 2016 interview promoting his lesser-known indie film Mr. Church, Murphy responded to a similar mention of Bowfinger by stating, “I love Bowfinger. That’s a funny one.” Despite director Frank Oz recalling ad-lib moments on set, Murphy mentioned that he didn’t remember much improvisation, attributing the film more to Steve Martin’s creative vision. Perhaps his perception that The Nutty Professor is more his own, given his multiple roles in the film, makes him hold it in higher regard than Bowfinger.

Murphy is known for his unpredictable nature, even in his quieter moments, and he seems to push back against feeling restricted by expectations. For instance, despite the return of several stars, jokes, and tunes in the new sequel, the iconic Axel Foley laugh is notably absent. Murphy clarified in various interviews that the distinctive laugh, a low, staccato inhalation, was actually his own laugh, one he consciously stopped using decades ago.

Murphy talks about not wanting to be pigeonholed and known for something so superficial – but moreover, he zeroes in on how anyone doing an impression of him would punctuate it with the laugh. He notes, with a comic actor’s well-honed eye for hackiness, that even today, “impressions” of Murphy tend to involve doing the Donkey voice for Shrek, followed by the laugh. “That’s not me,” he says, laughing – but not like that – through his mock outrage.

He makes a great point about the reductive nature of recognizing signature elements of actors’ performances – and at the same time, how stubbornly reactive do you have to be to literally change your laugh just to prove a point, years into an ultra-successful career? For that matter, if you’re concerned about being known as a simplified version of your image, why make Coming 2 America or Beverly Hills Cop 4 (or, back in the day, Another 48 Hours or Beverly Hills Cop III)? You can see in this decision a mix of bravado and defensiveness, which may be the key to why we see so little of the “old” Eddie Murphy these days. He can still deliver the charm (as he does in Axel F) and big laughs (as he did on his terrific Saturday Night Live episode) and stretch himself as a performer (as he did in the otherwise dire Mr. Church), but Murphy often appears to be keeping his audience at arm’s length – like when he showed up for the SNL 40 special to not do much of anything, or when he flirted with hosting the Oscars, then bailed. His much-mulled return to stand-up, too, seems to be a casualty of not wanting to play into an audience’s high expectations.

This isn’t a criticism of Murphy, who has been absolutely correct when, in the past, he’s pointed out that he has nothing he needs to prove to anyone. His place in film and comedy history is assured. (He should have been Oscar-nominated for something well before Dreamgirls, whether for Bowfinger, Nutty Professor, or something else entirely.) And anyway, hardly anyone stays exactly the same for decades at a time; that stasis is the last thing Murphy owes his audience. But there’s some old-fashioned comedian’s insecurity at work in the decision to replay old characters – Axel F is Murphy’s tenth sequel if you count the Shrek movies – while also appearing willing to disappear a genuine part of himself in an attempt to curtail bad impressions done by others. Or maybe it’s that last bit that really rankles – the idea that while Murphy’s charisma, energy, and delivery couldn’t truly be replicated, his laugh was easy enough to imitate. This could be a way of Murphy forcing us to accept no substitutes, despite the fact that he’s made plenty of those himself.

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.