Kevin Bacon calls working with Eddie Murphy on “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” a 'bucket list' moment

"Our paths never crossed in the '80s. We never worked together. I don't remember even having met him," the actor confessed about Murphy.

Kevin Bacon is serving up some serious praise for his Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F costar, Eddie Murphy.

The actor told PEOPLE that he jumped at the chance to star as Beverly Hills PD Capt. Cade Grant in the upcoming action-comedy because working with Murphy had been on his "bucket list" for a while.

"He is one of our greatest movie stars ever," Bacon told the outlet. "Our paths never crossed in the '80s. We never worked together. I don't remember even having met him — I'm sure we probably did, but I don't remember.”

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Getty(2) Eddie Murphy and Kevin Bacon

Bacon explained that Murphy brought not only a ton of laughs, but also a sense of spontaneity to each scene with his stellar improvisation skills.

"Eddie is somebody who is a very relaxed and loose and present actor. He comes in and famously does a lot of improvising," he said. “But, when he improvises, there's improvisation where you can really feel that the improviser is trying to go for a laugh. I never saw him trying to be funny either on camera or off camera, and he's still hilarious. To the point where sometimes I was about to lose it just because he would look at me."

He added that Murphy would often keenly study the performances of everyone else in the scene with him and use their mannerisms to his advantage. "I'd noticed that he will pick up on some little thing that the other person is doing or saying or whatever, and kind of put it back to them,” Bacon recalled. “It was great. I loved working with him."

The film, which is the fourth installment of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, sees the return of longtime stars Murphy, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot. It also has a collection of new stars reporting for duty too, including Bacon and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Netflix Kevin Bacon in 'Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F'

The Footloose star isn’t the only one commending Murphy’s comedic talents. Axel F director Mark Molloy told Entertainment Weekly in May that he made sure that Murphy was given the time and space to improvise in each scene as he saw fit.

"You've got one of the greatest comedians, if not in my eyes, the greatest comedian in the world. A huge part of my job is to create a space for improvisation to thrive,” Molloy said. “I always want to get what's on the page, but when you have someone like Eddie Murphy, you want to let him be free."

He continued, "And as I look back on the film, some of the funniest moments in the film is when Eddie is improvising and the audience loves it."

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F hits Netflix on July 3.

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