![Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, John Belushi](https://cdn.statically.io/img/people.com/thmb/qpEBbJKflI6C2xhp38DmQdj5pQo=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(761x239:763x241)/robin-williams-eddie-murphy-john-belushi-062924-33cf746b110946d98497f4b367e77286.jpg)
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Eddie Murphy says Robin Williams and John Belushi played a critical role in convincing him to stay away from drugs.
While appearing on The New York Times’ The Interview podcast, the actor, 63, recalled a night out with the comedy icons in the 1980s, during which he declined their invitation to do cocaine.
The trio were out at a bar, and Murphy was just 19 at the time, he recalled. “It was me, [John] Belushi and Robin Williams,” the Saturday Night Live alum said on the podcast. “They start doing coke, and I was like, ‘No, I’m cool.’ ”
Remembering his thought process in that moment, the Beverly Hills Cop star said, “I wasn’t taking some moral stance. I just wasn’t interested in it. To not have the desire or the curiosity, I’d say that’s providence.”
“God was looking over me in that moment,” he added.
![Eddie Murphy](https://people.com/thmb/AZTkeeR7YG8dVUwku_f1RtnlXGo=/4000x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(719x289:721x291)/eddie-murphy-51eb6965357643d39613e005e23417ec.jpg)
Murphy said that, especially as an up-and-coming comedian, he did not want to do anything that could jeopardize his success.
“When you get famous really young, especially a Black artist, it’s like living in a minefield,” he said on The Interview. “At any moment, you could step on a mine. Any moment, something could happen that can undo everything.”
“But I was oblivious to the fact that I was in a minefield,” he added.
Elaborating on that analogy further, Murphy — who made his SNL debut at just 19 years old — said that the bombs were “just everything.”
“Just imagine being a young person and having the world placed at your feet,” he said. “Nobody's saying ‘no,’ and everybody wants to be around you. You try all types of s--- and get caught up in all kinds of stuff."
"That's what destroys people," he added.
![Eddie Murphy as Raheem Abdul Muhammed, Chevy Chase during "Weekend Update" on April 11, 1981](https://people.com/thmb/wihd5HHVC2N6wd1oFgX2t_s1Se8=/4000x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(725x385:727x387)/snl-eddie-murphy-chevy-chase-april-1981-041524-41e2eced66a24c99a2bf10dc35489b2b.jpg)
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Belushi died of an overdose in 1982 at age 33, while Williams died by suicide in 2014 after a lifelong struggle with severe depression. He was 63.
In the podcast, Murphy said that the fates of legendary entertainers like Prince, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley “cautionary tales for me” — and the reason he steers clear of drugs to this day.
“I don’t drink,” he revealed. “I smoked a joint for the first time when I was 30 years old. The extent of drugs is some weed.”