Multi-Grammy award-winning musician Chance the Rapper has taken to social media to argue that Eddie Murphy should have starred in Total Recall. The hit 1990 film starred action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first adaptation of author Philip K. Dick’s 1966 short story, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale. The film received an updated adaptation in 2012, with Colin Farrell in the lead role.
Unfortunately, unlike its predecessor, the 2012 version of Total Recall was a box office failure. Some would argue that this was down to the fact that the film didn’t need to be remade and that Schwarzenegger’s impact on the original was so significant that it had no chance of being replicated by Farrell. In 1990, Schwarzenegger’s career shifted into the next level of stardom, with his role in the career-defining T2: Judgement Day just two years off. And in an unlikely turn, the famed Austrian bodybuilder turned actor had previously come off the smash success of comedy Twins before returning to action filmmaking with Total Recall. In other words, Schwarzenegger was proving that he was a major draw at the box office and that he could take on roles that weren’t strictly limited to violent action.
Despite its success, the initial reception to Total Recall wasn’t all praise, however. The film was criticized for its violence, which was substantial for a mainstream film of the time. But while some might have taken issue with that aspect, very few felt Schwarzenegger was miscast in the role of Douglas Quaid. Now, over 30 years later, Chance the Rapper has taken to his official Twitter account to argue that the Quaid role should have gone to Eddie Murphy. Pointing out his belief that Murphy was “the biggest movie star in the world” in 1990, Chance maintained that a Murphy-led Total Recall would have been a proper rival to another sci-fi blockbuster, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner:
There’s no doubt that Murphy’s career had dominated throughout the 1980s, with huge comedic hits like 48Hrs, Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, and Coming to America all offering substantial proof that the former SNL star was a fan favorite. But by 1990, Murphy’s career wasn’t on par with Schwarzenegger’s – at least in terms of action filmmaking. Audiences were still very interested in Murphy as a comedian, but his track record in films that were a little more action-heavy wasn’t that impressive. Between the success of Beverly Hills Cop I & II, Murphy took on The Golden Child, an action-adventure story that marked the lowest box office returns of his career to that point.
In short, as genuinely likable as Murphy was and is, casting him in Total Recall rather than Schwarzenegger would have been a big mistake. The high-stakes action that the film offered wouldn’t have been credible with a comedic actor, especially given the enormity of Murphy’s comedy career at the time. Schwarzenegger gave the role of Douglas Quaid something that only he could – a proven action star in a film that pushed genre boundaries and set him up for the career-defining enormity of what was to come.
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