Jamie Foxx Reveals Eddie Murphy Has a Specific Smell Pumped Throughout His House

Eddie Murphy's home has a signature olfactory element, according to Jamie Foxx.

The mysterious smell in the Shrek voice actor’s mansion came to light when Foxx and fellow comedians Sarah Silverman, Seth Meyers, Roy Wood Jr., Chelsea Handler and Hasan Minaj, gathered for The Hollywood Reporter’s Stand-Up Emmy Roundtable.

While talking about his search for fresh stand-up material, Foxx, 57, recalled a time when he went to visit Murphy, 64, at his house around the premiere of Coming 2 America.

“He says he’s going to try to go do stand-up. I say to him, ‘You can’t.’ He says, ‘Why?’ I say, ‘This ain’t funny. Your house is too nice,' Foxx shares.

To illustrate just how lavish Murphy's home life has become, he reveals to the group there was a distinct scent to the Beverly Hills Cop actor’s residence.

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“He had a scent. You know, the sh- - that pumps through the house,” Foxx recalls.

“Like a hotel?” Meyers, 51, asks.

Foxx says he dared to ask Murphy, “What is that smell?”

“It’s pomegranate,” Murphy replied.

Foxx says learning that piece of information told him stand-up comedy is no longer for Murphy.

“The fact that you know that s--- lets me know that you ain’t funny, bro,” he recalls telling Murphy, alluding to the idea that a funny standup set requires the performer to have experienced some hardship or personal trauma. 

Living a seemingly “perfect” life, Foxx admits he's found himself in a similar situation. “I didn’t have anything to talk about.”

That changed, he says, when he experienced a near-fatal stroke in 2023.

“This stroke happened, and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is a platform.’ But I don’t want to have to have another stroke, even though we have [a deal for] another hour,” Foxx jokes.

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The medical incident occurred on April 4, 2023, while the actor was on location filming Back in Action with Cameron Diaz in Atlanta.

Foxx experienced a stroke caused by a brain bleed that left him unable to walk and in the hospital for months. A year and a half later, he opened up about the episode and his path to recovery in detail during his Netflix comedy special Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was... 

"The only thing I could hold on to was my sense of humor," Foxx said in the special. "I couldn't necessarily walk that good. I couldn't talk that good. But I didn't let go of my funny. I said, 'If I can stay funny, I can stay alive.' "