Bet You Didn’t Know: Secrets Behind The Making Of “The Nutty Professor”

The Story 

As you know The Nutty Professor is a remake of the 1963 Jerry Lewis film of the same name. Being a self-proclaimed television addict as a child, Murphy watched all of Lewis’ movies and idolized him in a way. In an interview with “Inside the Actor’s Studio” he explained how he initially came up with the idea to do this movie and how it came together.

“I had gotten to where I wanted to do some other character stuff again. I was watching one of those daytime chat shows and there was a cartoon of a person losing weight. And you kept seeing this big body breaking away til it was a little skinny body in the middle. And I put that idea with Jerry Lewis’ old idea. I went and I pitched it to a couple of people. Nobody was interested in it. It floated around a little bit. Then I pitched it to Brian Grazer and he liked it. Got in touch with Jerry Lewis and he liked the idea of it.”