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Crazy Like A Foxx

By: Jordan Riefe

Friday February 18, 2005

Jamie Foxx sits down and talks about Collateral, Tom Cruise, Michael Mann and his next big role.
Jordan Riefe: Was it fun working with Tom Cruise?

Jamie Foxx: I am always nervous meeting my favorite stars. There is some disappointment sometimes when the person you see on screen isn't really cool or down. When you meet a Will Smith, who's like as nice as you can be and at the top of the list, its great. Tom Cruise has the same type of vibe. He was engaging. He'd see my sister when she was on the set and he'd kiss her on the cheek. He came to hang out at my birthday party and did things he didn't have to do. I've seen people at HBO specials, and that's all they got out, with 12 bodyguards the next day and you have to talk through publicists. Here's a guy who chooses to be cool. That's what you hope for when you see Denzel and Samuel L. Jackson. They are totally cool. That was the main ingredient to the chemistry.

So, you and Tom pretty much clicked?

The cool part about it was he came to my world. I threw my party at Sunset 9000 and we had elements in there. It was folks, it was brother, it was black, and it was sexy. I told them Tom Cruise was coming and people would go, "Tom Cruise ain't going to your damn party, c'mon." And he walks in and people were blown away. It was a total surprise. Here are people who know everything about you and you may not know anything about them, but right now you've done something that they're giving you a stamp of approval. Quincy Jones was in there. Gabrielle Union was in there. There was a certain tiered black that were in there. The black actors who were wishing they had your opportunities. Not that I would want to be the white superstar, but just wishing they had an opportunity. But then, he opened himself up to answer questions and let people come to the set and kick it with him. That was what was cool about him.

How was it working with Michael Mann?

Here's the thing about working with Michael Mann. Michael Mann calls and says, "Foxx, can you play a cab driver?" I said, "C'mon man, that's almost embarrassing. I can play a cab driver, I can do my thing." And then he said, "Well, can you not do your thing? Can you be boring? Can you be in the middle of the road? Can you be indecisive? Can you not even care? Can you be this dude where he doesn't care if anything good or anything bad happens that day? He just wants to go home." That was the key to making Max really happen. For me, I really draw on my blackness, and brothers wouldn't do that. He said, "How do you know? Have you ever seen a dude have a guy fall from the sky on top of his car? Go ask how many of your friends have fired a .45 caliber pistol at somebody. How many people have been around a dead person?" Okay, then you start to think I get it. That's what was great about playing the role, I was bringing all the questions to where he was the uncomfortable hero. He was the reluctant guy who was never going to turn that light switch on until he was confronted with all these circumstances in one night.

But your character is a bit funny at times.

That's my wink to you and that's my wink to my people that are there for the coming. I'm not just meaning black, but to all the cats who are saying Foxx is that funny dude. Within every serious situation, there's always an element of funny. I would go to funerals, the most serious thing in the world, but somebody's going to try and climb in the casket. Why did she get in the casket? She didn't even love him when he was alive. That's what we take into consideration with some of the crazy suggestions from Vincent: "Go in and be me. Just roll with it. I'm killing people, it's no big deal." Some of the reactions will just make you laugh.

You took cab driving lessons for the movie?

Michael Mann said, "You're going to learn how to drive a cab." So we're on a racetrack and Crown Victoria is going 80 or 90 miles an hour. I said, "I don't understand the method of it, but I'm having a good time driving these cars." But he said the reason was he wanted me to feel how to control the cab. He said, "I don't want you to drive the cab because you're acting. When you're in L.A. you're not thinking about driving your car, you're thinking that you'll be late to a meeting." We wanted it to feel like that, so that's why we did a lot of training in the cabs.

Was your role written for a black actor?

Regardless of whether he's written black or not, the way I develop my characters I never say, "colorless male, 22 years old." In my experience in Hollywood it's always been, "What's with the black thing?" Why when I say 'black' people give a knee jerk reaction? It's just part of the character. There's different tiers of black folk, but I have to generate that from me. When you look at Tom Cruise, it says "white male in his 40s." There's a reason for saying that and there are certain circumstances with being white in America and being black in America or whatever part of the world. It's not like you're saying I have to eat fried chicken or watermelon in the scene, it's not that at all. In this blackness, it was Ladera Heights. It was Kyle Evans, a good friend of mine who knew the gangsters, but he always knew how to sidestep situations. That was the type of black character I built on myself.

There are people who are surprised at how good you are in "Collateral". Do you take that as an insult?

No, it's not an insult. Let them be what they want to be as long as it's good. But you have to look at it this way: Tom Cruise has a tough time being Tom Cruise because everything's always great. I'm the New Jack. I'm sure it will be years from now, but hopefully there will be younger guys pushing me. You ought to take your hat off to Tom Cruise and Michael Mann to let me do my thing. Hollywood can create huge egos who don't want you to do well, "Oh the kid's good cut this, oh the kid's good cut that." You got to look at it like this, they're allowing me to eat and eat well and I'm giving them thanks for letting me do this thing.

You're getting Oscar buzz for your work in the biopic "Ray".

I've heard that, but when you hear when people say they don't want to jinx things. I accept that because I come from an athletic background. If you're playing basketball you want to go to the championship, and if the Oscar is the championship you want that to happen for your movie for a number of reasons. For one, Ray Charles got a chance to view the movie in his own way before he passed. We wanted to make people understand that-"Oh, Ray Charles died and we wanted to make a quick buck." For every person that called me and said, "Oh this..." I shut that off. This movie is so eloquently told with Taylor Hackford directing. We got some serious supporting actors like Larenz Tate, Bokeem Woodbine, and Regina King. Everyone's playing jazz in this movie. It's a real hot movie. When you hear the buzz, that just gives a better chance to open the movie and for people to see the movie. And if it goes that far, well you welcome that.

So it was great playing someone like Ray Charles?

It's been great. When you sit up and mimic people--and you get to do it in a great way when you tell this man's story. Not the impersonation of Ray Charles, how he talks to his kids, how he orders his food, how he gets angry at his employees, how he blesses his employees. You see by the end of the movie you can't ask for a better time than I'm having because it's exciting even when I run into Bernie Mac, they really dig that. When they see the Ray Charles thing it's such a departure. We're always competing in comedy but since I didn't have a slot in there, with this now that we've established we can do the work in the Super Bowl type projects, now we're getting the projects that you long for. One script we got was called "The Next Hot Black Guy". That's when you shook your head and said I'm going to be on the road for the rest of my life because I'm not doing the "Next Hot Black Guy". Now I can hold my head up, I could do my thing, and we can show every different tier of blackness. We can be wild and crazy as we want, we can have culture, and everything with between. It's a great thing.

How do you feel about the success of the song "Slow Jams", a track you did with rapper Kanye West?

The song is something else, because we did the record at my house. We gave up on the music thing. I said, "Man, that Eddie Murphy thing, I can't deal with it." So when Kanye came over I said, "Who is this brilliant guy?"

And I said, "You can use my studio for free." And he said, "Would you do the hook on this song?" I said, "Cool." So I did the hook on this song, and fast forward it's the number one song. That right there was a brand new thing. I like appreciated that in a way more than the movies because music has been a huge part of my life. So when that happened it added some young heat.

What was it like shooting in L.A? Did you get recognized?

Oh yeah, there were plenty of moments when we were recognized and people yelling out things. But it was great doing this movie in L.A. and not in Vancouver or Canada. This is when you know when you're with the big dogs because Michael Mann said we're shooting in L.A., there's no question. Michael Mann shut down the FBI building and then he shut the street off. He cuts off all the streets at 6:30 in the afternoon because we did that scene where we're going through the lights and I'm not really driving, there's a person behind me driving. He can only see straight but the streets were supposed to be locked off. Just as we got up to 60 miles an hour a car floats in the intersection and it was like slow motion and Michael's gum was jammed. Luckily I hit the brake and we missed it by a couple of inches. It was a Toyota, brown Toyota. Shooting in L.A. was fun and adventurous.

Who is a faster runner, you or Tom?

I got to hold it down for the folks. I can't let him beat me like that, but he could move. There were a couple of brothers on the set saying, "Tom Cruise looking kinda good dawg. Think you can take him?" I said, "I don't know, I have to get in shape."