Steve Martin. Matt Baron/BEI/Shutterstock
The end of an era. While reflecting on his career, Steve Martin revealed that he doesn’t have any plans to continue acting after Only Murders in the Building comes to an end.
“When this television show is done, I’m not going to seek others. I’m not going to seek other movies. I don’t want to do cameos. This is, weirdly, it,” the actor, 76, told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, August 10, about looking toward his future.
Martin, who stars in the Hulu series alongside Martin Short and Selena Gomez, noted that he has been thinking about retiring for a while.
“We were very happy just doing the live show,” he said, referring to his ongoing You Won’t Believe What They Look Like Today! tour with Short, 72. “There may be a natural end to that — somebody gets sick, somebody just wears out — but I wouldn’t do it without Marty.”
The New York native got his start as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the 1960s. The stand-up comic went on to appear on The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live, with Martin previously hosting the sketch series 15 times.
On the big screen, the Emmy Award winner won over viewers with roles in The Jerk, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, Three Amigos, Father of the Bride, Cheaper by the Dozen and more. He has also dabbled in music by writing the lyrics to Bright Star and Meteor Shower, both of which premiered on Broadway.
In 2021, Martin co-created and starred in his first television series, Only Murders in the Building. The comedy series follows three strangers who form a bond over their love of true crime. After a mysterious death occurs in their building, Mabel (Gomez), Oliver (Short) and Charles (Martin) team up to track down the killer — while recording a podcast about their investigation.
Earlier this month, co-creator John Hoffman opened up about the joy of collaborating with Martin on the hit TV series.
“He told me recently, just dancing around the room, he would never have expected such a delightful thing,” Hoffman told THR on Sunday, August 7. “He said, ‘My career hasn’t had the mix of a warm, critical reception with a popular reception like this all at once. My movies get appreciated 20 years later.’ I hadn’t thought of that. I find it incredibly moving that he dove in with everybody in that spirit to lead the way.”
At the time, the producer also offered a glimpse at how the writing comes together for OMITB.
“Once we squared on the tone of the show as New York City, you could have your cake and eat it too with these comedic geniuses,” he continued. “What if the cat is in the freezer? You can play a scene with Steve Martin discovering a cat in the freezer and having to pull it out and one of the legs snaps off and now he’s putting it in his pocket. But that scene has to be married with something deeply grounding.”
Hoffman added: “It’s absurdist, but both things are being held at once. It all has to be in good measure and give the audience what they want, but it has to be organically true to the narrative we’re building. That’s the joy of this show: It can go a lot of different directions, and you never know where it’s going to go from one moment to the next.
Only Murders in the Building has been renewed for season 3 and season 2 is currently airing Tuesdays on Hulu.
