Eddie Murphy left the 2007 Oscars ceremony early as he didn't want "sympathy" for missing out on the Best Supporting Actor award

Eddie told Entertainment Weekly: "What happened was I was at the Oscars, I had lost, and then people kept coming over to me and kept (patting) me on the shoulder.

"Clint Eastwood came and rubbed my shoulder. And I was like, oh, no, no, I'm not gonna be this guy all night. Let's just leave. I didn't storm out. I was like, I'm not gonna be the sympathy guy all night."

Murphy recalled how he knew that Arkin would win the Oscar long before the ceremony as he had watched Little Miss Sunshine several months prior to its release.

The Beverly Hills Cop star said: "Jeff Katzenberg invited me over to see Little Miss Sunshine six months before it came out in theatres, and I literally watched the movie and I watched Alan - and I hadn't been nominated or anything yet - and I watched the movie and I turned to Jeff afterwards and I said, 'Now that performance right there is one of those performances that will steal somebody's Oscar.'

"I said those exact words. I was like, 'He could steal somebody's Oscar', then he stole mine."

Eddie then clarified: "No, I don't feel like he stole mine."

The Coming to America star has never won an Academy Award and thinks that claiming one of the prestigious gongs is "more art than science".

He said: "Winning an Oscar is more art than science. It's not like oh, you do this, and you do that, and you win the Oscar. No, it's all this intangible stuff that comes with winning: campaigning and your past stuff and what do they owe you and s***. All of that stuff comes into play when you get Oscars."

Murphy felt that Arkin - who died aged 89 in 2023 - met the requirements for Oscars glory.

He said: "When you add all of that stuff into it, he totally deserves his Oscar for his whole career. He's an amazing actor."