Amazon Studios will exclusively release COMING 2 AMERICA globally on Prime Video March 5th!
Thank you Amazon Studios for inviting me to the coveted COMING 2 AMERICA virtual press junket with the entire cast! What an honor and privilege to be among the greats of Hollywood.
Welcome back to Zamunda
Thirty-two years after Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall became movie royalty in Coming to America, Prince Akeem and his trusty friend Semmi are reuniting in Coming 2 America.
I was able to prescreen COMING 2 AMERICA, I haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time and I must share, the Easter eggs through out the movie floored me. I kept jumping out of my seat, my little one constantly asked me, “what did you see now?” I would stop the movie and explain why I was so excited, then immediately afterwards I put on the first COMING TO AMERICA so he’d see why I was freaking out.
It’s beautifully written, the talent was exceptional and it didn’t miss a beat. You feel like you’ve kept up with the family your entire life. This is the MUST SEE movie!
I’ll share highlights of the press junket with you, I would love to share all of it but you’d be reading forever.
PRESS CONFERENCE #1
Tracy Morgan, Jermaine Fowler, Nomzamo Mbatha, Rotimi, Luenell, Teyana Taylor & Wesley SnipesModerated by Jacqueline Coley
Jacqueline Coley:
I have to tell folks, this is a family. It's not just the families you saw onscreen, and so much of that comes from you. So really talk about how I think this movie really embraces blended families and how they can come together.
Tracy Morgan:
You've always got that one person in the family that keeps everybody together.
Jermaine Fowler:
What is love?
Jacqueline Coley:
No judgment, no judgment, because I'm living for Leslie. In that entire 30-year span, I'm sure there was some great moments. So I would love to see that sequel. Eddie, y'all listening? Okay. Jermaine, it's so crazy, too, because you get cast in this movie. It is literally with I think Tracy said the Mount Rushmore of Black comics in a lot of ways. But did you think that maybe your character actually teaches Akeem through the course of this film? Because that was the thing I really sort of took away from it, watching it a second time.
Jermaine Fowler:
Yeah. Inadvertently, he does. What I go through with my situation with Mirembe, he slowly gets reminded about what brought him to Queens and his love for Lisa. All that comes back to him. But it's something you learn throughout the movie. Without my family, my aunts, my uncles, my mom, and Mirembe that we all start to realize this movie is just a reminder of what true love is. Sometimes you've got to get bumped in the head a little bit to just remember that.
Nomzamo Mbatha:
Or get chased by a lion. (Funniest scene)
PRESS CONFERENCE #2
Louie Anderson, Paul Bates, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Garcelle Beauvais & John Amos
Moderated by Jacqueline Coley
Jacqueline Coley:
I'm going to ask it to you as Paul Bates and Garcelle as well. The party at the end, let's just talk about it. I was jealous of everybody. Anybody who got to be there, anybody who got to take a selfie, anybody... I mean, you guys, I just want to take it back to that day real quick before we get out of here. If you could just tell me what that was like real quickly, Mr. Bates.
Paul Bates:
I know you were jealous of me because Ruth Carter is a genius and she made me look good. And that's just part a hard thing to do, but I look royal at that party, don't I?
Jacqueline Coley:
Everybody did.
John Amos:
Yes, you did
Garcelle Beauvais:
You did.
Jacqueline Coley:
What about you, Garcelle? What was the party like for you? I saw you back there doing your thing. Did you have fun?
Garcelle Beauvais:
We were having a ball. I'm going to echo what Paul said about Ruth Carter. The fact that everybody looks so regal, so beautiful, and so different was a feat. What I loved about her, not only did she put these costumes together, she also pulled from different designers so it wasn't just about her. And she gave people credit. She was just brilliant. It was just the party of all parties.
PRESS CONFERENCE #3
Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Leslie Jones, Akiley Love & Bella Murphy
Moderated by Jacqueline Coley
Jacqueline Coley:
Mr. Eddie Murphy, I'm going to start with you because it all starts here. I spoke to you yesterday and you talked about... This was five years and, really 30, but five years of honest work to bring this to the screen. So talk about when you first thought, okay, we can get the wheels going, and then that journey to finally this moment.
Eddie Murphy:
Well, it was maybe about three drafts of the script in we got it to where the structure and the narrative thread was strong enough to... I was like, okay, we have a movie here, and now we just have to bring a young writer in and put that modern spin on it. Enter Kenya Barris.
Jacqueline Coley:
They were totally new? You guys tried to bring back as many people as possible. Yeah, if you guys can, Arsenio and Eddie, just talk to that process of, we got to bring them back, we got to bring them back.
Eddie Murphy:
We wanted to bring everybody back from the original. Actually, we wanted to... Where the story left off. It was like, okay, we have to bring back from where the story left off. The Eric LaSalle character and the Lisa McDowell sister. The last time you saw them, he was soaking wet. She said, "We got to get you out of these clothes," and imply that they were going to be together. And me and Lisa went off happily ever after. So it was like, okay, how do you connect the dots? It was like, it would be kind of funny if McDowell opened a McDowells in Africa and it was so that he could be there. It was like, who would make the most sense? And how can we connect the dots the best? That's how we picked who would be in the movie.
Jacqueline Coley:
Yeah. And then Mr. Arsenio Hall, what I wanted to ask you about is... I'm sure on set you're like, "They're back? And this person's back? That person's back?" Because that's what I was watching just seeing it on screen. So I can only imagine maybe a bit like deja vu.
Arsenio Hall:
Hey, there was a night when Eddie did a scene with John Amos at the McDowell's, and it was the first time I walked into a room and saw John Amos and Louie Anderson. It was a real special feeling, especially for John. I mean, I love John. What John has done for black people in Hollywood when I was growing up, the dignity that he displayed as a man, I love him forever. And seeing him, really, it warmed my heart, as Leslie might say.
Jacqueline Coley:
Leslie, I want to bring it to you next because you had an even more daunting task, which is you've got to put yourself in...tasks, which is you've got to put yourself in iconic moments from the original, quite literally, in those flashback scenes. And so I just want to know what that was like for you to, first of all, go back to that time period with the gold and all of that. But also know that this is inserting you into the canon of the original in a way that is not really seen with a lot of the other characters.
Leslie Jones:
Well, first of all, I don't know what comedian didn't write themselves into the original Coming to America. So I was already in the movie. So I don't know what you're talking about. I had did a whole different character though, but I was Samuel Jackson's sister, you know what I'm saying? And we decided to get a job at Modales. You know what I mean? But they decided to write this way, that's cool. It's cool. It worked out. It worked out their way.
COMING 2 AMERICA
Starring Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan, KiKi Layne, Shari Headley, with Wesley Snipes and James Earl Jones. Also starring John Amos, Teyana Taylor, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Paul Bates, Nomzamo Mbatha, Bella Murphy
Set in the lush and royal country of Zamunda, newly-crowned King Akeem (Eddie Murphy) and his trusted confidante Semmi(Arsenio Hall) embark on an all-new hilarious adventure that has them traversing the globe from their great African nation to the borough of Queens, New York – where it all began.
Directed by Craig Brewer
Screenplay by Kenya Barris and Barry W. Blaustein & David Sheffield
Story by Barry W. Blaustein & David Sheffield and Justin Kanew
Based on characters created by Eddie Murphy
Produced by Kevin Misher and Eddie Murphy
Costumes by Ruth E. Carter
Executive Produced by Brian Oliver, Bradley Fischer, Valerii An, Kenya Barris, Charisse Hewitt-Webster, Michele Imperato Stabile and Andy Berman
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