Eddie Murphy’s speech addressing the lack of recognition of Black actors at the 1988 Oscars almost didn’t happen — and it was a fellow comedian who tried to talk him out of it.

“I remember being with Robin Williams backstage. I was like, ‘I’m gonna say this.’ And he goes to me, like, ‘But why go there?’” Murphy recalled in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly .

“I was like, ‘Oh, you don’t think it’s funny?’ It was more, is it funny? Rather than it’s controversial,” Murphy explained. “I was trying to be funny and say a little something, but be funny too. Have a little edge to what I said.”

Murphy, now 64, delivered the speech before handing out the Best Picture award to Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor.”

The longtime comedian revealed that he first declined the Acad

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