Bella Murphy plays Omma, one of Akeem and Lisa’s younger daughters, and she quickly fell in love with the character. “Omma is super-smart, a little bit of a bad***, and she’s super-cool,” Bella told Essence. For more movie news sent right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Speaking to ET Online, Eddie shared the most important boundary that he set for his children, should they want to follow him into acting. “I told [Bella] that she couldn’t work until she was 18, but she started acting lessons, she was doing an acting school and stuff for maybe two years before that,” he said. When she learned of the age-appropriate role in her dad’s new comedy, Bella was interested, but she wasn’t just handed the job. “She auditioned for it and got the part,” Eddie told ET. Not only is Bella making her debut in a long-long-awaited sequel to a comedy classic, she also got to have family by her side. “Being able to do my first film with my dad is really special,” she told Essence. “I’m over the moon.” For another show business family, check out How Mary-Kate & Ashley Stopped Elizabeth Olsen From Being a Child Star. “I was very nervous,” Bella remembered when talking to ET Online. “You know, I didn’t want people to think that I was just doing this because I can or I didn’t want people to watch it and be like, ‘Oh, that’s his daughter because she can’t keep up with everyone,’ you know?” She also recalled a particularly stressful scene in which their real-life father/daughter relationship came through on set. During a choreographed action scene, Bella came very close to whacking Eddie with a bow staff instead of striking where he was ready to block. “I saw his life flash before his eyes and we were just frozen there, and I was like, ‘What’s about to happen?’” Bella said. “And [director] Craig [Brewer] yelled cut, and after, my dad was like, ‘You’re grounded!’” Her fears about wielding the weapon extended to the rest of the star-heavy cast, too. “I don’t want to hit Wesley Snipes in the head with a stick…” she shared. “It was my first movie, and I don’t wanna do that.” For more celebrity kids getting big jobs, check out Paul Walker’s Daughter Just Landed Her First Major Modeling Gig. “The one thing that I didn’t want to do was a bad sequel to a movie that a lot of people have a lot invested,” Eddie told Essence. “A lot of people grew up watching Coming to America. It’s special to them. So, you don’t want to taint that.” As for why Coming to America means so much to so many viewers, the older Murphy thinks that it’s because “romantic fantasy comedy” films centering Black characters are still so rare. “Black people, we don’t get a lot of movies like this one…” he explained. “Usually, when we see ourselves on the screen, it’s heavy things…Rarely do we get just to go see some escapism.” And for the sequel fate Murphy wanted to avoid, check out The Worst Movie Sequel of All Time, According to Critics.
