The Big Picture

Collider’s Steve Weintraub sits down to discuss
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
with Judge Reinhold and John Ashton.
Ashton and Reinhold share their experience with the film
Midnight Run
and their appearances in the TV show
Wonder Woman
.
They also talk about practical action sequences, why they decided to return to the franchise 30 years later, and more.

A crucial element for successful franchises is bringing back beloved characters. It’s especially important when it’s released 30 years after the previous film. Such is the case with Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, which obviously wouldn’t exist without Eddie Murphy’s eponymous detective, but it also needs its core cops. Despite the many failed attempts over the years to get this series back on its feet, John Ashton and Judge Reinhold, who play John Taggart and Billy Rosewood, respectively, were “all in,” for this reunion. But that wasn’t always the case.

Foley is back in action in the fourth Beverly Hills Cop. This time, Axel’s daughter, Jane (Taylour Paige), is threatened, and there’s no way this detective is letting that slide. Together, they seek out the help of Beverly Hills’ Detective Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his old friends Taggart and Rosewood, and wreak havoc on the Sunshine State once again when they uncover a conspiracy. The movie also brings back Paul Reiser as Jeffrey and Bronson Pinchot’s Serge and introduces Kevin Bacon as Captain Grant.

In this interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Ashton and Reinhold discover they have more in common than the Beverly Hills Cop franchise — we dig into their Wonder Woman roles and the pipeline from Wonder Woman to the Starsky & Hutch spin-off that never was, as well as Midnight Run, a movie they both auditioned for. Ashton talks about his hilarious and successful audition with Robert De Niro, and they both reveal why they decided to return to the series after all these years.

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

We Almost Got This Bizarre ‘Starsky & Hutch’ Spin-Off

COLLIDER: Perhaps you don’t know this, but early in your career, and very early in your career, you both did an episode of Wonder Woman. Did you know that?

JUDGE REINHOLD: You did Wonder Woman? How did I not know this?

JOHN ASHTON: No, actually, I only worked a day or two on it. [Laughs] I got the Wonder Woman, I worked a day or two, and then they wanted me to audition for a pilot of a spin-off of Starsky & Hutch. I had to get out of that contract to be able to do the pilot for Starsky & Hutch, so they had to recast me so I could do the pilot for Starsky & Hutch.

REINHOLD: You were gonna have a recurring role in Wonder Woman?

ASHTON: No, in Starsky. It was called Huggy Bear and the Turkey.

REINHOLD: Oh my, look what we’ve missed!

ASHTON: [Laughs] It never went anywhere.

REINHOLD: Look how close we came to that. It’s painful.

I didn’t know that, but I still think it’s pretty cool because Wonder Woman in the ‘70s was a really big deal.

“Go F*ck Yourself” Was All Robert De Niro Needed to Hear for This ‘Midnight Run’ Audition
Image by Jefferson Chacon

One of my all-time favorite films is Midnight Run.

ASHTON: Oh, thank you.

It’s incredible. When did you know that was gonna be a huge thing, and what do you remember about making it?

ASHTON: I went to see Joey [Pantoliano] do a play in LA, and at intermission, an actor, Alan Vint, a friend of mine, came up and said, “Well, you’re gonna do Midnight Run, aren’t you?” And I go, “I don’t know, I never heard about it.” And, of course, I had my Cracker Jack agent, but, you know. [Laughs] So he said, “You’re perfect, man.” Then I found out Marty Brest was directing it, who directed the first Cop, so I called Marty, and I said, “Hey, Marty, what’s the deal with Midnight Run?” He goes, “Oh, you’d be great in it.” And I said, “Well, I’m waiting for the offer,” and he said, “But you have to audition with Bob De Niro.” So I said, “Okay, that’s fine.”

So I went and I had an audition with Bob. There were about 30 guys in the hallway, and everybody was like, “Oh my god, I gotta read with Bobby De Niro?” Everybody was freaking out, and I said, “I can’t wait, man. Nobody’s getting this role but me.” I went in, and Bob and I talked a little bit, and then we started reading the scene, and — I’ll have to swear a little bit — I said, “Give me the keys, Jack. Give me the keys.” And Bobby started handing me these matches, and I went to grab the matches, and he threw them on the floor and stared at me. I looked at the matches, and I looked up, and I said, “Fuck you,” and he said, “Fuck you, too.” I said, “Go fuck yourself.” I know every other actor picked those up and handed it to him, and I found out as soon as I left he went, “I want him,” because he wanted somebody to stand up to him. Bob and I got along great on the film.

REINHOLD: I read for the [Charles] Grodin role, but then I found out that they were just waiting for him to be available. Paramount was saying, “No, we can’t wait for Grodin.” So to stall, they started reading people, and they even had Cher in there. They had everybody in Hollywood reading for that role because they were stalling waiting for Charles Gordin to be available.

ASHTON: That’s when they moved it from Paramount to Universal. When they wanted to bring Cher in, Marty went and took it to Universal. Originally, they wanted Richard Dreyfuss for Gordin’s role.

REINHOLD: Oh, I could see that.

ASHTON: Dreyfuss turned it down to do Moon Over Parador. So, every time I see Dreyfuss, he goes, “Yeah, great choice, huh?” [Laughs]

REINHOLD: I could see him in that role.

ASHTON: It’d be different, but, you know.

How ‘Beverly Hills Cop 4’ Finally Came Together

It kills me because I could spend like 20 minutes talking just about that film, but let’s jump into why I get to talk to the two of you. This movie has been talked about for a long time. When did you both find out that, “Wait, this is actually gonna happen?” And what was it like the first day you both stepped on set and inhabited these characters again after so many years?

ASHTON: They had been talking about it for 20 years. It was like, “Yes, no, yes, no. This person’s involved, and they’re not involved.” So, you move on with your life. I was doing other films. Actually, I was in Chicago shooting a film when they called me about this. I finished that film, and then I flew to LA and met with Mark Molloy. I knew that it wasn’t going to be done unless Eddie approved the script. Eddie’s a bright guy and I knew when he said yes, and especially when Jerry Bruckheimer got involved, I said, “I’m all in.”

REINHOLD: When Jerry got involved, it just ramped up. He made sure that Eddie had a script that he would approve. I guess Jerry had a relationship with Will Beall, who wrote Bad Boys [Ride or Die], the latest one. I don’t really know how that went down, but Will Beall is an ex-LAPD patrolman and detective, and that was in the script. You could feel that sensibility.

One of the things that I love about this movie is that it is no CGI fest. It’s just a lot of practical. The helicopter thing, the action set piece on Wilshire Boulevard, the third act in the house — it’s real stuff. It’s practical. Can you talk about that and the fact that they’re really going for it with us?

REINHOLD: We were happy about that. I don’t wanna talk about what’s processed and what’s not, but I thought that helicopter sequence was amazing. There’s a guy named Fred North. He is the greatest helicopter stun pilot in the world; nobody can touch him, and we had him. He’s from France. He’s French.

REINHOLD: I think the personal relationships in the movie and the action in the movie blend really well together. Now Eddie’s got a daughter, and it’s a whole different thing, a whole different feeling with personal stuff. Then the action blows you away. I was watching it last night, and as soon as the movie opened and “The Heat Is On” started playing, I got the chills myself.

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

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