Unlike many of his contemporaries, Eddie Murphy never got big into drugs or alcohol. In fact, according to him, he’s only ever drank twice in his life. “I can’t drink, because I will throw up,” Murphy said in 2011. His most recent attempt to hit the bottle was during his honeymoon in 1993. “That was the second time I got drunk and it was the last time.” 

Murphy first tried his hand at drinking while he was working on Coming to America in 1988, and by all accounts, it was a complete disaster. John Landis, the director of the movie, had been giving Murphy grief left and right, and it eventually took its toll on the comedian. As Murphy explained to Playboy a few years later, Landis even told lead actress Shari Headley to stay away from Murphy because if the two had sex, it would ruin the movie. The final straw was when Landis got in the middle of a business deal between Murphy and his writers.

Murphy jokingly grabbed Landis by the throat in response, and Landis tried to play along in his own way. “Landis reached down to grab my balls, like he also thought it was a joke—and I cut his wind off,” Murphy remembered. “He fell down, his face turned red, his eyes watered up like a bitch and he ran off the set.” Murphy found out later that Landis’s behavior was a result of Murphy not supporting him while he was on trial for involuntary manslaughter (Actor Vic Morrow and two children were killed in a freak accident as Landis was directing a scene from 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie).

The stress from all this drove Murphy to drink. “While making Coming to America, I had some weirdness with John Landis, who was directing the movie,” Murphy told Rolling Stone in 1989. “We had a tussling confrontation, and when I went home, Arsenio [Hall] gave me some alcohol to settle me down. I thought a drink might help,” the comedian continued. “I won the Most Vomit Award. I was bent over the toilet for hours.”

Hall elaborated on the story when Murphy appeared on his show in 2013, saying, “I got him to try vodka and orange juice, which is called a screwdriver.” Murphy then interjected, telling the audience, “He had a fifth of Stoli vodka, and we drank that shit and the story ended horribly.” Hall recalled it being a crazy house party with tons of people, and revealed that at one point, Murphy was having a conversation with a dog named Val. “I don’t remember talking to the dog,” Murphy said. “You were on your kitchen floor, and you said, ‘Val, I trust you,’” Hall insisted. This was just before the aforementioned vomit, of course.

Murphy and Landis reunited for Beverly Hills Cop III in 1994, presumably without engaging in any ball-grabbing or excessive vomiting.