[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F]

The Big Picture

Collider’s Steve Weintraub sits down with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kevin Bacon for
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
.
Gordon-Levitt and Bacon discuss what it’s like working opposite Eddie Murphy, filming on location, practical action set pieces, and Bacon’s demise.
Gordon-Levitt also teases his return to the
Knives Out
franchise and Bacon talks about his role in Ti West’s upcoming horror
MaXXXine
.

Thanks to Eddie Murphy’s vision, Jerry Bruckheimer’s producing prowess, and Netflix, fans are finally getting the next chapter of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Like any action-packed franchise worth its salt, Murphy isn’t the only familiar face to return to the series, but this one also introduces a few star-powered additions. At both ends of the good cop/bad cop spectrum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kevin Bacon join the ranks of this timeless buddy cop saga, but one isn’t sticking around for long (should there be a Beverly Hills Cop 5).

After long last, Murphy received a script that sang. Now, 30 years after the last movie, Axel Foley is returning to the lavish, sunny Beverly Hills. As per usual, this is no vacation after his daughter, Jane (Taylour Paige), was threatened. To get to the bottom of this situation, the father and daughter team up with LAPD’s Detective Abbott (Gordon-Levitt) and Foley’s old pals John Taggart (John Ashton) and Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), under the tutelage of Captain Grant (Bacon), and wind up discovering a conspiracy that cuts Bacon’s stay short.

In this interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Gordon-Levitt and Bacon discuss working on location and shutting down Wilshire Boulevard for the epic helicopter sequence. Bacon talks about getting to play a bad guy again, taking pride in his applauded demise and his role in MaXXXine, and Gordon-Levitt talks about working with Murphy, teases his return to Knives Out 3, and what Blockbuster Video was.

You can watch the full conversation in the video above, or read the transcript below.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Axel Foley returns to Beverly Hills after his daughter’s life’s threatened. Includes old pals John Taggart and Billy Rosewood to uncover a conspiracy.Release Date July 3, 2024 Director Mark Molloy Writers Will Beall , Daniel Petrie Jr. , Tom Gormican , Kevin Etten Studio Paramount Pictures Expand

Is Joseph Gordon-Levitt In ‘Knives Out 3’?
Image by Zanda Rice

COLLIDER: I’m gonna start with the most important question upfront. Will you be contributing more weird noises to Knives Out 3, or could Detective Hardrock make an appearance?

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: [Laughs] This is TBD. I don’t know the answer, but if we continue our streak, I’ll appear in some way, shape or form.

Now an individual question for you, sir. I am a huge fan of Tremors, the first film. It’s really stood the test of time. When did you realize, “Wait a minute, this could be more than some B-movie where it resonates with a lot of people?”

KEVIN BACON: It took me a while because what people forget about that movie is that when it came out it was a bomb. We had a very tough time figuring out how to market comedy horror, and it’s still a tough thing to market. People weren’t really that into me fighting underground worms. [Laughs] But it was discovered by the Blockbuster Gang, and it just could not stay on the shelf at Blockbuster. So, eventually, over the course of time…

Related Now Is the Time for a Kevin Bacon-Led ‘Tremors’ Sequel He wants to do it, so what’s the hold up with putting Kevin Bacon back in the ‘Tremors’ universe’?

GORDON-LEVITT: Kids, Blockbuster Video was a brick-and-mortar establishment where you would go and rent movies in physical form!

BACON: Oh, I’m sorry. That’s right. I forgot to clarify what I was talking about. [Laughs] It was a big plastic box that you shoved into this machine.

And you needed to rewind or you got penalized.

GORDON-LEVITT: “Be kind, rewind.”

BACON: Yes, “be kind, rewind.”

Kevin Bacon Knows He Succeeded When You Hate Him
Image via Netflix.

Kevin, you played the bad guy in the film, and one of the reasons you know you did a great job is when something bad happens to your character…

BACON: Pretty much the worst thing that can happen to your character.

The whole audience was clapping.

BACON: At the hands of who? [Gestures to Gordon-Levitt]

Were you there last night?

BACON: I was. I feel like I did my job. If they clap when I go down, that’s what I was there for.

‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ Makes Some Timely Updates

One of my favorite scenes in the movie involves your character, and it’s when you first meet Eddie in the police station. He’s trying to get under your skin, and you’re basically acknowledging that what you could do in the ‘80s does not work today. Can you talk about how the film does a great job of pointing out how much things have changed?

GORDON-LEVITT: That was always my hope for this sidekick character, was to not be the old-fashioned sidekick who’s sort of just a mini version of the hero but who could go toe-to-toe with him. The thing about Axel Foley is he can trick you, he can manipulate you, he can play on your insecurities to get you to do what he needs you to do to solve his case, and I wanted a character who was like, “Oh, no, you can’t trick me. I see through you.” What’s nice about that, also, is if there’s a character who can see through Axel Foley, that means he’s probably pretty sensitive, he’s probably emotionally intelligent or empathetic, and I like the idea of an action cop hero guy who’s empathetic. That felt like a fresh version of the character to introduce to the genre.

What surprised me is all the stuff you guys did in Los Angeles. Nothing is filmed in LA anymore, and there’s that massive action set piece just down the street from here.

GORDON-LEVITT: We closed down Wilshire. You’re Angelino and you hear that, you’re like, “You closed down Wilshire? Really?”

What was it like actually filming that sequence and filming in LA, which, again, no one is doing?

BACON: I mean, great.

GORDON-LEVITT: I got to stay home with my family. That was nice.

Can you talk specifically about filming that sequence on Wilshire?

GORDON-LEVITT: This was the helicopter chase scene, which is one of my favorites in the movie. I was not flying the helicopter, to be perfectly honest. But actually, one of the coolest things about that scene is there was a guy who really did fly a helicopter and did those stunts. As I’m sure you will know, a lot of the big action movies nowadays are all CGI. It’s all digital animation. There’s nothing really happening there. This guy flew this helicopter off a building, made it fall sideways, came close to the street, and barely missed a bus. He did all that stuff and we photographed it, and I think you can feel that realness when you watch it.

Oh, 100%. One of the things I loved is the practical nature of this film, even the beginning with the trucks going through all the cars. I’m like, “Who does this anymore?”

What Makes Eddie Murphy Such an “Earnest and Disarming” Co-Star
Image via Netflix

I’m a huge fan of Eddie Murphy, just like the two of you. What, if anything, surprised you about collaborating with him that perhaps you weren’t expecting?

GORDON-LEVITT: One of the things I think goes underappreciated about Eddie is he’s actually a very earnest actor. As funny as he is, even when he’s doing his big, bombastic characters, even when he’s behind prosthetic makeup in The Nutty Professor or Coming to America or whatever it is, part of what’s so charming about those performances is that he still feels like a real person, and that was counterintuitive. I didn’t expect how much he emphasized, “Let’s make sure we all still feel real.” He wasn’t reaching for the laughs. He was making sure it was all honest and then letting the laughs come naturally.

BACON: I think that Eddie is a very, very relaxed actor, very loose and very present. He really listens and really watches, and if you see, a lot of his humor is about keeping his eye on somebody and focusing on somebody that he’s working with, and it’s very disarming. It’s good for me because I’m a very rehearsed kind of person; I think a lot about it. I make a lot of really big decisions before I get onto the set, and I think that it’s good to be with somebody who’s just in the flow.

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for MaXXXine]

Kevin Bacon Reveals His Part in Ti West’s ‘MaXXXine’
Image via A24

Something that I’m really looking forward to is MaXXXine.

BACON: Also shot in LA, by the way.

What can you tease about being part of that film?

BACON: Listen, I love Ti [West’s] movies. You won’t be surprised to hear that I’m a bad guy in MaXXXine, but he could not be more different than the guy in Beverly Hills Cop. That’s what I’m just grateful for as an actor, that I get to do that.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is available to stream on Netflix.

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