Ever wondered what it's like to work with the comic genius behind "The Nutty Professor," "Dr. Dolittle," and "Norbit?" According to Eddie Murphy's co-star in the upcoming "A Thousand Words," it's absolutely terrifying.

"A Thousand Words," which opens March 9, stars Murphy as Jack McCall, a sharp-shooting, fast-talking L.A. literary agent whose life comes unglued when a New Age guru puts a magical Bodhi tree in his backyard. Every time the cursed McCall speaks a word, a leaf falls from the 1,000-leaf Bodhi. Once they've all fallen, McCall is doomed to perish, so he's got to find a new way to communicate.

Duke plays Murphy's assistant in "A Thousand Words." The script leaves Murphy with fewer lines than the front man is used to having, leaving room for Duke to make an impression or two.

"There's a scene where we're at this business dinner, and [Murphy's character] can't talk," he said. "So the director tells me to do an impression of Eddie Murphy. And it's not intentionally bad, but I was having a panic attack. It's nerve-wrecking to have the man himself sitting right next to me watching me do this impression. I had to have four beers at lunch to get through that scene."

While Duke called shooting scenes like this one a nightmare, working alongside one of his comic heroes was a dream. 

"He's so funny, he doesn't even need to talk," he said. "He still ends up carrying a lot of weight even when he can't speak."

Audiences may recognize Duke from such comedies as "Kick Ass," "Sex Drive," and "Hot Tub Time Machine," in which he played opposite another one of his heroes, Chevy Chase.  

Duke's made the transition from "Superbad" party extra to "southern comedic trailblazer" in a quick five years and doesn't plan on slowing down.

"A Thousand Words" marks a casting transition for Duke; while he may have graduated from Loyola Marymount University years ago, his screen persona seems to have just graduated. The upcoming flick is the first in which 26-year-old Duke does not play a high school or college student. 

"You kind of get stuck in high school and college roles for a while, but it's funny because all of those actors are actually in their twenties," he said. "It's the alternate movie reality."

As a film major at LMU, Duke made his presence known online with the 2007 CBS mockumentary web series, "Clark and Michael." Duke wrote, produced, and starred in the series alongside best friend Michael Cera. The show chronicles the pair's ambitions to write and sell a television pilot. It's a game with which Duke is growing increasingly familiar. While he's got a handful of acting projects coming up through the summer, Duke's focusing much of his efforts on a feature script rewrite. 

"Writing and directing is pretty much all I want to do," he said. "I don't care if I'm in them or not, but my long term goal is to make that transition to writing."

In the meantime, Duke says he's going to focus on praying people go see "A Thousand Words." While men learning profound lessons through excruciatingly funny and compromising circumstances is no new motif, Duke says this film has a little something extra.

"This one has more heart than some of the others [like 'Shallow Hal' and 'Yes Man,']"he said. "The core of the movie is about figuring out what's important to him: his family. Plus, I'm in this one, so that raises the bar!"

Reach reporter Allegra Tepper here, or follow her on Twitter.