“Saw Eddie Murphy”: Failed $20,000,000 Project in 1996 Inadvertently Taught Shaquille O’Neal How to Turn Himself into a Superstar

Shaquille O’Neal already had a considerable taste of Hollywood before he made his way to the LA Lakers in 1996. Already a film star with his movie Kazaam, Shaq was not at all concerned by the fact that it ended up losing money. Kazaam cost $20,000,000 to make and grossed just $18.9 million. However, for Shaq, it was a childhood dream come true. He met a range of stars including Eddie Murphy in LA, loved attending the movie premieres, and had no concern about the movie being made according to Jeff Pearlman’s Three Ring Circus.

O’Neal was still at the Orlando Magic when he started filming the movie. While Kazaam was not a success, it still exposed him to Hollywood and Los Angeles, which eventually played a part in his move to the Lakers. The rest, as they say, is history.

Shaquille O’Neal was unbothered by Kazaam’s failure at the box office

Shaq might already have been well aware of the movie being poor when he filmed it. The concept, his look, and a range of other factors might have given him an inkling that the movie was going to flop.

Still, becoming a movie star, and seeing his pictures on billboards was a childhood dream for Shaq. This meant that despite a few bad reviews, Shaq continued to have the time of his life:

“Kazaam hit theaters in the summer of 1996, and the result was not wonderful. It grossed $18.9 million, and Empire Magazine’s Barry McIlheney spoke for the masses when he wrote that the movie was ‘mind numbingly bad. It has no redeeming features unless you like big men dressed in camp genie costumes.’ And yet… O’Neal didn’t care. He dug the buzz, the excitement, the getups, the special effects. He dug walking the red carpet at the movie’s Hollywood premiere. Seeing himself on billboards was a little boy’s biggest dream bursting to life. ‘It was great—all of it,’ O’Neal recalled years later. ‘I loved Los Angeles. I actually lived there when I first left college. During the off-season, L.A. was the place to be for marketing, for commercials. And you’d see everybody. I saw Eddie Murphy walk into a restaurant in all leather. All fucking leather. Being in Los Angeles taught you how to be a superstar. I saw the stars in L.A. and thought, this is what I want!’”

O’Neal immediately fell in love with the attention he got and the overall culture of Los Angeles. He found that the city had a genuine constant buzz to it, and even ran into Eddie Murphy dressed in all leather, at a restaurant. All of it proved enough for Shaq to conclude that this was “what he wanted.”

O’Neal effectively ruined his Hollywood career with Kazaam

Kazaam and Steel were the only two movies that Shaq ever acted in. His acting ability aside, his choice of scripts might have also played a part in ruining his Hollywood career.

While Shaq has had a range of cameos in movies and TV series over the years, he has not starred in a movie since 1997’s Steel. That, along with the way Kazaam flopped played a major role in him not being viewed as a serious actor.

Moreover, even Shaq’s cameos since then have mostly come as himself. While he has found a lot of success in a range of roles in different industries, acting, might simply not be his strongest suit, despite how enjoyable he finds it.