How Eriq La Salle Pays Forward His Big Coming to America Break at 26: ‘I’ll Never Forget Auditioning’ (Exclusive)

Eriq La Salle still remembers how it felt to catch his Coming to America the role.

35 years ago he had a big break in Eddie Murphy’s movie when he was 26 years old. The director and novelist, now 61, starred in the 1988 comedy as Darryl Jenks.

“I’ll never forget the audition,” La Salle tells PEOPLE of trying out for the role in front of director John Landis. “I’m doing my thing, [and he] he just casually says, ‘Yeah, well, see you on set, and blah, blah, blah.’ I’m just confused and I said, ‘Well, what do you mean?’ He said, ‘Yeah, see you on set.’ And I say, ‘How are you going to see me on set?’ He says, ‘Well, you got the job.’ ”

La Salle left the audition “literally jumping up and running” in his black Honda Accord, feeling so empowered and satisfied — not just because he got the part, but because being cast on the spot is “very rare.”

He said the opportunity has been paying off ever since.

Eric La Salle 2023.

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty

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“The cool thing about it was when I started directing, whenever I could, I would get the actors in the room,” explains La Salle.

“I wanted to bring back that feeling of power, that feeling of satisfaction, that feeling of confirmation,” he adds. “I see the look it leaves on the actor’s face and I know how it feels in their heart.”

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IN Coming to America, La Salle’s character Darryl was the heir to the Soul Glo empire and the boyfriend of Lisa McDowell (played by Shari Headley).

After the film, La Salle rose to fame and went on to star in medical dramas Emergency — but not without a few hiccups.

Eriq La Salle in the film “Coming to America”.

Michael Ochs/Getty Archive

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In the early 90s, while he was still building his acting career, he was cast in a film opposite Michelle Pfeiffer as a replacement for Denzel Washington, who walked out of the project.

But just two weeks after being cast, La Salle was fired because the film’s producers felt he looked too young to play Pfeiffer’s love interest.

“It was heartbreaking at the time, but I had to move on, so I decided to enroll in a film class,” he recalls. “We started directing short films, so the layoff launched my directing career.”

“But we also had to write those short films, so that brought me back to writing,” he adds. “That was in the early 90s. All these years later, I just got to the point where I wanted to expand my storytelling.”

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Source: HIS Education