Tracy Morgan Gets Real On Crash That Nearly Took His Life, Appearing In 'Coming To America 2'

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Laughter, someone once said, is the best medicine for what ails you. We all could use a smile these days and the new film "Coming To America 2" hopes to help out where it can.

Comedian Tracy Morgan makes it his life's work to make people smile. He continues to do so after his life came so close to being cut short. He's part of the cast of the new film and he can't wait for you to see it.

After 30 years, original cast favorites and many talented newcomers, including Morgan, pick up the, in my humble opinion, hilarious storyline.

Morgan was also very happy to work with his Saturday Night Live alum colleague and dear friend Eddie Murphy. As a matter of fact, Murphy's wheels started turning for a sequel in 2015. That's the year he returned to Saturday Night Live for the first time in over 30 years.

"You know, he did the 40th anniversary, he came back to SNL, that was the year I got hit by a truck," Morgan said.

Morgan was involved in a rear-end tractor-trailer crash on the New Jersey Turnpike. One of his friends, a comedy writer, was killed. Morgan sustained life-threatening injuries -- he knows he's blessed and a feeling of giving up was not an option.

"At that moment when it first happened, when I didn't see any hope, when I couldn't walk, before they taught me to stand up and sit down again, you don't feel that way. But as the months and months and months went by, part of my therapy was seeing TV and seeing my friends and saying if I'm coming back. I said I'm going back, I wanna go back."

And he did, with his journey culminating to date with a call from Murphy about a new movie.

"Yo, I'm in, let me tell you what I'm in. I don't care what you doing, I'm in," Morgan recalls thinking.

In for the part of Uncle Reems, the protective uncle of the young man who turns out to be the son of the king. Morgan loves being in this movie, and his love for movies began under the tutelage of his late father.

"I was only 7, he took me into see 'The Exorcist' while he smoked weed. So you can imagine where my head was. I'm just joking, my pops never did that," Morgan said.

Morgan was in high school when the first "Coming To America" came out. But he didn't finish.

"My dad passed away. I dropped out with four credits to go in the 12th grade. I didn't care about nothing no more," Morgan said.

But he found a way to get his life together while honoring his father at the same time.

"My dad was a big Eddie Murphy fan," Morgan said.

And Morgan is hoping moviegoers past and present will be doing the same.

Morgan said the original cast took the newbies under their wings and he felt the rest was movie-making magic.

See for yourself when "Coming To America 2" is released on Amazon Prime Friday, March 5.