The 55-year-old actor first stepped into the role of the animated donkey, who’s simply known as Donkey, in 2001, and after the announcement of a fifth ‘Shrek’ saga on the way in 2019, the Hollywood legend, thinks he’ll be in the role forever as the studio knows the films will always be a hit.
Speaking to Collider.com, he said: “Anything that’s been as successful as ‘Shrek’, anything that people really like, they’re always going to make those movies. They don’t stop making those types of movies until the audience says ‘no more!’
“If it’s been successful you’ll see another ‘Toy Story’, and ‘Shrek’ is one of those movies. And they took a nice long break. The next ‘Shrek’ ... I think Jeffrey [Katzenberg, producer] told me 2019. But they’ve got a good script, they wrote a nice good script.”
But the ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ star might not be happy with a life of playing the comic relief character, as he’s recently been moving into more serious dramas.
His new project ‘Mr. Church’ isn’t a funny film and the star said that is exactly what drew him to it.
He revealed: “I’ve played everything from a donkey to an old lady already. And I’ve done movies that may have had a serious scene in it, or a dramatic moment, but everything I’ve done has always had something funny going on. And this was a guy that’s not funny, the situation and the story isn’t funny. There are some charming moments and some light hearted things but it’s a really serious movie, and that’s what made me interested in doing it.”
The ‘Coming To America’ actor - who is best known for his comedic characters - also revealed that he had a “strong reaction” when he was sent the script for ‘Mr. Church’, and said he wanted to accept the role because it was something that he doesn’t “get offered”.
He said: “I had a really strong reaction when I read the script. And I was really rested, I wasn’t doing anything and this popped up and it seemed like that would be ... I don’t know if fun is the right word to use but I thought it would give me an opportunity to do something that I hadn’t done before. I don’t get offered stuff like this.”
