Jamie Foxx
Interview By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com
Since winning the Academy Award for his spot-on portrayal of musical legend Ray Charles in 2004′s Ray, Jamie Foxx has been taking Hollywood by storm. The former stand-up comedian has proved himself as an unexpected dramatic talent in films like Collateral and Jarhead and has also showcased his musical chops in Dreamgirls and through album recordings. Now he’s tackling the political thriller The Kingdom. As federal agent Ronald Fleury, Foxx must assemble a task force to investigate a deadly suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia.
The role required some preparation and research, something that proved to be an eye-opening experience for Foxx. The Kingdom strives to hit the balance between grim reality and entertainment value, peppering serious moments with a lighter touch. It’s something Foxx thinks is true to the real-life situations on which the movie is based.
“We got a chance to go to where the federal agents train for this and they show you bombs,” he says. “That was what was crazy, like seeing them blow stuff up in front of you. And to see how their approach was as opposed to mine because I was like, oh my God, what are they gonna do? And they were just—it was another day in the office for them. So we had to sort of match that. It’s not how we view it. We view it on this huge scale and they view like I got to get up, go to work, this may happen, this may not happen. And so that was the reason for putting some of the jokes in there, making it light, because that’s the way these guys are.”
To some, the movie has a powerful political undertone. But Foxx views it on a much simpler and less controversial level. To him it was more about the characters and the circumstances they must face. “I don’t know if it was necessarily political as it was…When you watch Ashraf
With the movie’s touchy subject matter, is he worried about its box office success? “When you’re working with [producer] Michael Mann and [director] Peter Berg that’s not the first thing you think about,” says Foxx. “The first thing you think of is the work of it, the art of it. When you look at Al Pacino and you look at his body of work, most of them weren’t the commercial success but they were the one’s that you remember. So not to say that I don’t want to be commercially successful, but you know that you’re doing a piece that when you look back on it, you can be happy about it.”
The actions sequences in The Kingdom were intense and the stunts seemed elaborate, so it’s no surprise to hear that the shoot was physically demanding and sometimes dangerous. “I think the danger was the climate,” Foxx says. “We were in Phoenix, it was 115, maybe 130 degrees on that blacktop. That’s why I think Jennifer Garner is the strongest person in the world after having a child, getting back in shape and then being out in those conditions and handling it. The other danger we had to pay attention to was there was a lot of guns going off simultaneously, so you had to make sure you weren’t in anybody’s path because even though they were blanks, it could still cause damage. And then the physicality of going through those hallways, blowing up stuff. But that’s the fun part of it. That’s what you dreamt about when you were a kid and you’d say man
He even got a chance to give a shout-out to his hometown during one improvised line in the movie. “It’s good to tip your hat because in that town, that town at one point seemed like [it was] on an island because it was 12,000 people, railroad tracks separated you from the north and south sides,” he says. “Brought up in Texas, I just thought it was black, white and Mexican. I had never heard Jewish, maybe I just never paid attention to it, and then I got to L.A. and it’s all these different things. So it was good to let them in on what’s going on because your hometown always wants to know, did you forget about us? Don’t forget about us down here in Terrell.”
Foxx hasn’t forgotten where he came from, and he also hasn’t forgotten his comedic roots. Since his Oscar win for his dramatic role in Ray, Foxx’s career has taken a decidedly more serious tone. But just because his projects have shifted, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss being the funnyman. “Sometimes it pulls at your comedic soul because you’ll watch Rush Hour or you’ll watch Sandler and Stiller and Murphy and you just go, ‘Man!’” he says. “But every comic role that I did sort of was like in the lane of someone else, so we’d get compared. If it wasn’t as good as Murphy, it was horrible. If it wasn’t as good as Tucker, it was bad. So by having this sort of lane that’s not necessarily drama but just characters and doing pieces—I’m happy with that lane. And then Sirius radio gave me a chance to get my own comedy station so if you ever want to hear how it’s going down with the jokes hit me on Sirius
Foxx has had much success with his career as a leading man, but he’s still drawn to projects with an ensemble cast. Though Foxx clearly loves the attention, he’s not one to hog the spotlight. He’s content enough to be a supporting player. “I think what’s best for me right now is to have that ensemble because until you graduate, until you’re Will Smith, it’s good to have the people around,” he says humbly. “I like having it that way because I’m used to playing with the ensemble. The In Living Color days, it was ensemble…I like the comfortable spot where you’re not having to put everything on your shoulders and you’re working with people like Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman. So you know that you’re in good company.”
The versatile actor has a new, exciting project in the works; one that he can’t wait to talk about. Similar to his work in the biographical Ray, this film, too, is based on the remarkable true story of an unconventional musician’s life. It is being directed by Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement) and is rumored to be co-starring Robert Downey Jr.
“We’re doing a story called The Soloist about a guy who lived underneath the L.A. freeway,” Foxx explains. “He’s schizophrenic. A guy from the L.A. Times, Steve Lopez, has a wreck on his bicycle, hears this beautiful music coming from a violin only on two strings and he sees this guy and writes a story about him. And the next thing you know they get this bond together; it’s beautiful. It’s one of those pieces where you go like wow, this is one of those.”
