'Beverly Hills Cop' Star Details Huge Financial Setback From Failed TV Show

Bronson Pinchot has been a star on the big and small screen for four decades, first making his film debut alongside Tom Cruise in Risky Business and following it up with a role in Beverly Hills Cop. Pinchot has been working ever since, and at one point, he was successful enough to invest in some homes in Pennsylvania. But it soon led him into rough financial waters. 

In a new interview with People, Pinchot looked back more than a decade and reflected on when he bought six houses in rural Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania "for the price of a New York condo." His arrival in town wasn't exactly embraced by locals. 

"People did not understand or couldn't absorb the reason that an actor would want to live 150 miles from New York City in the middle of nowhere," he said. "They could never quite believe it."

Besides some less-than-welcoming neighbors, Pinchot ended up facing a difficult financial dilemma. He filmed his various home renovation endeavors for The Bronson Pinchot Project, which aired on the now-defunct DIY network in 2012 and 2013. That ended up causing more problems. 

"I made it a financial drain," he confessed. "They would give me X for my fee, Y for the construction, and then I would spend triple X and triple Y for each episode."

The series only lasted two seasons, and after it was given the axe, Pinchot had a decision to make as bills for the homes began accumulating and he had no way to pay them off. As a result, several of the properties went into foreclosure and were sold at auction. 

“I learned an amazing amount, and I lost my shirt," he admitted. "What are you going to do?"

While it was an unexpected setback, Pinchot can look back on the time fondly, even joking about it on set with Eddie Murphy while filming Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. 

"We're standing next to [a Bentley] and just waiting for something. And I said, 'Do you like cars?' And he said, 'Oh, I used to. I used to be all into that, and who has time for that anymore?' I said, 'Yeah, I used to be like that about houses. I had six houses at one point.' I said, 'Who has time for that?'" he recounted. 

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is streaming now on Netflix.