20 facts you might not know about 'The Nutty Professor'

In 1963, Jerry Lewis starred in the original The Nutty Professor, which was itself a parody of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Producer Brian Grazer was given the idea of remaking the movie thanks to a spark from music producer Russell Simmons. Both are credited as producers on this movie.

Lewis was a producer on The Nutty Professor and had a hand in the film. However, later in his life, Lewis said he wished he had not even allowed his movie to be remade. Specifically, he told Entertainment Weekly in 2009, “What I did was perfect the first time around and all you're going to do is diminish that perfection by letting someone else do it.” To be fair, Lewis spent much of his later years being a sourpuss and talking about how women aren’t funny and just generally bumming people out, so this isn’t that surprising of a change of heart.

Even though Eddie Murphy and John Landis didn’t always see eye to eye, they had found success on Coming to America together. Grazer and Murphy were hoping that Landis would sign on to direct The Nutty Professor as well. Instead, Tom Shadyac ended up on the movie after the success of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

Murphy doesn’t consider his film a faithful adaptation of the original Nutty Professor film. He says they “stripped the story down to its bare bones.” Also, in addition to drawing influence from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde like the original did, this film also was inspired by Cyrano de Bergerac as well.

Dave Chappelle, who considers Murphy a big influence, played the standup Reggie Warrington in the movie. The scenes between Chappelle and Murphy were largely improvised, and given that Chappelle wasn’t a huge name yet, it was a vote of confidence that he was given the chance to riff with one of his comedy heroes.

Reggie Warrington’s name comes from the brothers Reginald and Warrington Hudlin. The Hudlins had directed Murphy in the movie Boomerang. Reginald was apparently quite surprised to see an obnoxious character like Warrington named after him and his brother.

Reggie Warrington did not disappear for good after the end of The Nutty Professor. Chappelle brought the character back once, though in the medium of the comedy album. The actor and standup plays Warrington on Chris Rock’s 1997 album Roll with the New.

Like we said, Murphy has an affinity for playing multiple characters and hiding himself in makeup and prosthetics. The actor plays five members of the Klump family in the film, but not Sherman’s nephew Ernie Klump Jr. The child character was played by child actor Jamal Mixon.

Murphy got arguably the best in the business to help bring the Klumps to life. Rick Baker, a legend of special effects and makeup, worked on the makeup for the Klumps for the film. He praised Murphy for his patience with all the makeup he had to endure for the movie, saying, “As much as I love makeup, even I would have been complaining by the end, but Eddie didn't.”

The scene around the dinner table featuring all the Klumps is arguably the one scene from the film everybody remembers. Believe it or not, it almost didn’t make the cut. Initially, that scene was going to be removed from the film because it didn’t move the plot forward, but it was salvaged and was the real justification for a Klump-heavy sequel.

Murphy has to get his inspiration for all his characters from somewhere. Grandma Klump came easy to him, on account of the fact he found himself a source for the character. Murphy has said Grandma Klump is just his impression of famed standup Moms Mabley.

They almost cut the Klump family out of the movie, and the studio also didn’t like the idea of having Murphy play every Klump save for Ernie Jr. After all, it would have been cheaper to hire actors to play the roles, which would have saved time and money for all the makeup. Baker and Murphy put together a screen test, though, which got the studio on board.

While Sherman Klump is a portly fellow, that’s all prosthetics and makeup. At the time, Murphy was actually keeping himself in tip-top shape. That was partially because Sherman’s alter ego Buddy Love had to be in shape — but also because Murphy himself needed to be in shape in order to be comfortable while wearing all those prosthetics.

Larry Miller plays the Dean of Wellman College, named Dean Richmond. That name is a tip of the cap to the original Nutty Professor. He’s named after Bill Richmond, the co-writer of the Jerry Lewis film.

Who plays Sherman’s neighbor Mr. Wilson? Your guest is as good as ours. The actor is not listed in the end credits, is not listed on the IMDb page, and has not been identified in the ensuing years.

Sherman plays the music of Teddy Pendergrass at his house. This was probably a call made by Murphy himself. In his standup film Delirious, Murphy also mentions Pendergrass, saying that the singer has a great voice.

Two years after The Nutty Professor, Murphy had a hit with Doctor Dolittle. Much like The Nutty Professor, this was also a remake of a 1960s comedy. This time, Murphy was stepping in for Rex Harrison instead of Jerry Lewis.

The Nutty Professor wasn’t cheap, especially for a comedy. It cost $54 million to make. Ultimately, that all proved worthwhile. In spite of middling critical reviews, the movie made $274 million worldwide.

The Nutty Professor took home one Academy Award. For what? Why, Best Makeup of course! This was Baker’s fourth victory in the category, but far from his last. By the time he retired, Baker had won seven Best Makeup Oscars out of 11 nominations, both of which are records.

The success of The Nutty Professor gave us Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, which leaned even more into Murphy’s affinity for makeup and playing multiple characters. While the sequel brought in $42 million in its opening weekend, almost double what the original made, it did not have legs. Nutty Professor II only made $166.3 million off of a $84 million budget.