Eddie Murphy recently shared an opinion on which of his own performances he prefers over any other, and the result could be surprising to many. It seems that his 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor is the movie that Murphy holds in the highest regard among his many movie roles, despite the film being heavily criticized by audiences on its release.

The Nutty Professor was originally a 1963 movie starring Jerry Lewis, one of the legendary actor’s most memorable comedies. In Murphy’s version, he plays Sherman Klump, a professor who is loveable and large, but not in any way an outgoing kind of guy. When he discovers a chemical formula that transforms him into the more Eddie Murphy-shaped Buddy Love – who also has Murphy’s loud and energetic persona to boot - his life changes forever. The transformation is one that should give Klump the life he always wanted, but Buddy is larger than life, and Klump soon finds he is increasingly hard to control.

During an interview with the New York Times, Murphy explained why he believes that his performance in The Nutty Professor, which not only includes the dual roles of Sherman and Buddy, but also all the members of the Klump family, is the one he is proudest of.

“For me there’s no comparison. I like Bowfinger, but Nutty Professor — that stuff is real. Those makeups that Rick Baker did, that turn you into another person and there’s no sign of me: I could walk in a room, and a person wouldn’t even know it was me. Let’s put it this way: I like Bowfinger, but I could think of 20 other actors that could have played that role. I can’t think of another person that could do Nutty Professor.”

The Nutty Professor was a Hit, but Divided Opinion

While Murphy took on almost half of the main roles in the movie himself, The Nutty Professor did have a strong supporting cast, including Jada Pinkett Smith, James Coburn, Larry Miller, Dave Chapelle, and John Ales. The film was a hit at the box office, with a $274 million gross from a $54 million budget, and while the majority of critics were kind to the film, it became the moment when audiences decided that they were no longer quite on board with Murphy’s humor.

The Nutty Professor currently holds a reasonable 64% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is nowhere near the 82% held by Lewis’ original movie. In contrast, the audience score sits at a “rotten” 44% aggregated from reviews across the last three decades. Despite this, the financial success of the film led to the release of the sequel, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps – a disastrous decision that landed terrible reviews and a less than spectacular $166 million considering its increased budget that came in at $84 million.

However, despite several of Murphy’s subsequent movies crashing and burning similarly, he did have some success, mainly through voicing Donkey in the Shrek franchise. Recently, Murphy has been making a comeback, with a deal with Amazon’s Prime Video that has included movies like Coming 2 America and Candy Cane Lane, and now his upcoming return to the Beverly Hills Cop franchise on Netflix.

The Nutty Professor is currently streaming on Netflix, where it will be joined by Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F on July 3.