Advertisement

Eddie Murphy reunites with 'The Golden Child' after 33 years

The Golden Child (Credit: Paramount)
The Golden Child (Credit: Paramount)

33 years after the classic fantasy adventure The Golden Child, Eddie Murphy has met up with the youngster that he defended from Charles Dance's evil demon back in 1986.

Jasmin L. Reate played the boy – in real life she's a girl, of course – who was the saviour of all mankind, chaperoned by Murphy's wise-cracking social worker Chandler Jarrell.

Read more: The origin of Jurassic Park’s most quoted line

Reate is now a big wheel in the movie business, the executive director of events at the hugely respected Toronto Film Festival.

TORONTO, ONTARIO - SEPTEMBER 08: Eddie Murphy (L) and Jasmin Reate attend The Hollywood Reporter TIFF Studio presented by St. Regis, MAC, and Martell at The St. Regis Toronto on September 08, 2019 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Hollywood Reporter)
Eddie Murphy and Jasmin Reate (Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Hollywood Reporter)

Murphy was at the festival over the weekend, promoting his new movie Dolemite Is My Name, when he met up with Reate.

“He was just as kind as I remembered him when I was 6,” Reate confirmed.

The movie, helmed by Fletch and The Bad News Bears director Michael Ritchie, took an absolute battering by critics on its release.

Even Murphy joined in to slate it.

Reate and Charles Dance in The Golden Child (Credit: Paramount)
Reate and Charles Dance in The Golden Child (Credit: Paramount)

He told Rolling Stone in 1989: “No matter how I feel, for instance, about The Golden Child – which was a piece of s**t – the movie made more than $100 million. So who am I to say it sucks?”

It was indeed a success at the box office, making nearly $80 million in the US alone.

Read more: Fresh Prince actor John Wesley dies at 72

The biopic Dolemite Is My Name, meanwhile, finds Murphy playing the filmmaker, comedian and actor Rudy Ray Moore, responsible for a string of blaxploitation movies released in the 70s, notably his triology of Dolemite movies, in which he played the titular pimp and nightclub owner.

Also starring Keegan-Michael Key, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess, Chris Rock and Wesley Snipes, it premiered at Toronto on Saturday night.

It will be released by Netflix in October.