Chris Rock almost got a slice of Eddie Murphy’s million-dollar franchise pie.
During a live taping of the Fly on the Wall podcast with fellow SNL alums Dana Carvey and David Spade, Rock, 61, as part of the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival, revealed that he almost stepped in to voice Murphy’s role as Donkey in Shrek.
“I love Eddie. This is how crazy Eddie could be,” Rock started, chuckling. “Eddie has the studio in his house—like the recording studio in his house—so all he has to do is go downstairs to do ‘Donkey.’”
Despite having the home studio, Rock says Murphy, 65, would make DreamWorks “wait for months at a time” to record his voicelines. The star’s dawdling before recording his lines led the studio to approach Rock.
“At least twice,” Rock said, DreamWorks “negotiated deals with me to play Donkey.”
The deals ultimately fell through once Murphy got down to business.
“And then Eddie just went downstairs,” he joked. “And I’m out of $30 million, just because Eddie went downstairs.”
Since Shrek debuted in 2001, DreamWorks has made four sequels. During that time, Murphy experienced a second career peak, starring in movies like The Haunted Mansion, Daddy Day Care, and Norbit. Rock was excited at the prospect of taking one of Murphy’s projects off his hands for him, he recalled.
“I’m on my way to the studio. Yeah, I’m Donkey!” Rock said, feigning the moment he learned of Murphy’s return. “Oh, Eddie went downstairs. F---! F---! He’s in his pajamas doing Donkey right now.”
Shrek became the highest-grossing franchise in Murphy’s extensive filmography, netting DreamWorks more than $4 billion across all four films. Shrek 5 is currently in development and is expected to be released at the end of 2026.
In 2024, Murphy said his recording sessions for Shrek were “a blur,” due to the strain of maintaining Donkey’s constant high energy. “I have a headache afterward, really, because Donkey is on 10,” he said. “Lots of times I’ll hear the movie, and I’ll be like, ‘Wow, I don’t even remember saying that.’”
Despite the challenges, Murphy has consistently expressed his adoration for the Shrek films, saying in 2023 that he would do a fifth movie “in two seconds.” In a 2024 interview, Murphy also revealed that DreamWorks is actively developing a Donkey spin-off film, following the success of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
“You know, they did Puss in Boots movies. I was like, ‘They should have did a Donkey movie. Donkey is funnier than Puss in Boots,” Murphy said in 2023. “I mean, I love Puss in Boots, but he ain’t funny as the Donkey.”
Carvey, 70, revealed that he, too, had a lucrative part get away from him.
“I turned down Madagascar,“ he stated.
“What the hell was going on with you? Are you allergic to money?” Rock, who played Marty the zebra in the animated franchise, retorted.
“They wanted me to do a South African accent, and I was like, really working on it,” Carvey said. The part—the eccentric King Julien—ultimately went to Sacha Baron Cohen.
Baron Cohen, 54, has previously said that the accent he uses is not South African, but rather a parody of his Sri Lankan lawyer.
