Jamie
Foxx is charismatic, humorous and as smooth in person as he is on
camera. Not to mention, an
incredibly successful and talented actor.
Having gained notoriety for his multiple award winning
performance in RAY, in his upcoming film DREAMGIRLS,
he takes on the role of Curtis, a dubious, ambitious, greedy,
business savvy Motown mogul.
In
a time of a segregated world at the brink of the Civil Rights
movement, Curtis relentlessly pursues his dream of breaking into the
music business at any cost! He
has an aptitude and rare gift for recognizing potential talent, thus
generating insurmountable success with his conceptions.
His great vision and flair help create the new singing trio,
the Dreams. However, being
enraptured by the beautiful yet low profile Deena, he is oblivious
to everyone else’s needs and desires.
Despite his obsession, he is solely responsible for putting R
& B on the map and breaking through an otherwise impossible
mainstream
America
. His vision proves to be
lucrative but he is ultimately responsible for everyone’s
heartbreak. The journey to
success is a painful lesson learnt by all.
I
had the pleasure of meeting Jamie Foxx last week when he sat down to
share his experience in the music business and taking on the
dazzling role of Curtis in the upcoming musical film, DREAMGIRLS.
Check out what he had to say.
Jamie
Foxx
So is it okay to
mention Barry Gordy’s name in connection with you?
You know what? Barry Gordy is actually not this character.
This character that I’m playing is all of these record guys that I
met while I was doing my album. And they were just ruthless. They
were just saying some crazy stuff. I’ll never forget this one guy
who said, “I want to let you know, I don’t care if you sell one
record or a million records, my check stays the same.” And he
just walked out. Damn, well I guess I won’t sing the song I had
prepared for you then! That’s what Curtis is. Curtis is a mix of the music today.
Because the music today is more relentless; it’s a tough struggle
because nobody’s selling records. And so the music executive does
not have time to befriend you; it’s all about the business.
Tell us about the
concert with Fantasia?
We got a thirty-city tour. December 26th. It’s going to be
comedy and music. I’m looking forward to it. Because we got
lucky–we sold some records, and I got a MySpace account: JamieFoxx@MySpace.com.
We’ve been reaching out and hitting everybody; it looks like
it’s going to be hot.
What do you think of
Jennifer Hudson?
Oh, jeeez. You know what’s crazy? She knew. She knew the
whole time. She faked us all out. I knew she was ready for this,
because the first time she did her first line, she did not stumble
and she looked me right in the face like, “What are you
saying?!” And I said, uh oh. She is getting ready to rip this
place apart. And then when she got to that song, they had the camera
on me first. And she was singing it off-camera, and they told me,
“Be tough, Jamie,” and I’m about to cry. I’m like, my
goodness. And she just knew. It’s so great to see someone get it like that. Because she brought that country thing to it.
She’s from the South. She brought that thing that makes you move. It
was beautiful.
Did you see the
original play?
No, I was little. I was born in ’67. I’ve got a birthday
coming up, too. I’ll be 39 in two weeks. I didn’t get a chance to
see the play, but everybody got moved by that song by Jennifer
Holiday. And then when she found out what the play was about…it’s
just amazing.
Have you ever met
Jennifer Holiday?
No, I haven’t.
What did you bring from
Ray to this?
I
think that RAY allowed DREAMGIRLS to come through. I remember when
we did Ray Charles, there were a lot of whispers of, “You know,
do we have to say this is an African American film, or should we say
this is Americana?” And I said, “No, no, no, we should say
black film, and I’ll tell you why.” If you say black film, it’s
not about the skin, or African American, it’s about the business of
black. Meaning if Ray Charles does well financially and critically,
if he wants to produce a black film, he can do it, because now
there’s a benchmark, there’s a rating system. So therefore
DREAMGIRLS benefits because Ray
worked.
What I always said growing up as a young black kid in Texas:
I want things to be like pizza. When you eat a piece of pizza, you
don’t say, “Oh, this is Italy. This is Italian pizza.” You
just eat it. And that’s what I want my art to be. They get so used
to it being good, and so used to it working, that they just say,
“This is just like eating a slice of pizza.” And that’s
how I think that Ray Charles pushes DREAMGIRLS.
Your character had to
sell Cadillacs. What are some bad jobs you had before your big
break?
Oh, man. I sold shoes at Tom McCann. Do they even have Tom
McCann anymore, those little plastic shoes? I was in Foxhills mall,
or whatever. I was so good at it, I could look at people’s feet and
go: “Eight and a half, baby?” [woman’s voice] “Ooh,
you’re so crazy!” “Six and a half?” [woman’s voice]
“You’re so good!” So I was selling women’s shoes. But I
got lucky. I started playing the piano at an early age. I started
playing the piano for dance classes, modern classes and stuff like
that.
Self taught?
No, no, I had a teacher, and I went to college on a classical
piano scholarship. So when I got to San Diego, there were so many
different jobs, especially playing for ballet classes and things.
But when you hit In
Living Color…
It was crazy.
So it was always your
dream to do music?
Yeah, I wanted to do music, man. When I got to LA, I was
living in a hotel, and I was hanging out in Hollywood. I was like,
man, I must be in the wrong area. Because there were all these
derelicts, and I was just trying to find my way around. By not
having the money to get the thing done–you know, demos or
whatever–I just started doing standup, I started doing standup at
the comedy club out in LA. And it was a time where you could really
become semi-famous in Los Angeles alone.
If I’m doing a joke about Mike Tyson, Mike Tyson could be in
the audience. Which is a risk. But at the same time, you had people
kind of knowing who you were in Los Angeles. But it was always a
struggle to get back to the music. And it wasn’t until I met Kanye
West when it really jumped off. I threw this party, years
ago–before Kanye West was Kanye West–and at the party was Puffy,
Jay-Z, and two dudes in the corner…little guys. And they go,
“We’re the Neptunes.” I said, “What’s your
name?” He said, “Pharrell.” I said, “Well come
on in the party.”
And then some guy walks into the party wearing a backpack,
real quiet. He says his name is Kanye West. And I heard him rap, and
I said, “Dude, you’re incredible.” And I built a studio in
my house. And I built a studio in my house. I said, “Listen, if
you ever want to do a record, you don’t have to pay any money. I
went to all the studios, and got the hook-ups so you can cut a
record right here.” And we actually cut slow jams right there.
And then Ray came out, and then Golddigger. And that was the
surefire way for me to get back to the music business. That’s how it
came about.
So you helped him
produce Jesus Walks?
He didn’t do Jesus Walks at my place. We did Golddigger and
Slow Jams at my spot. But I give an open door policy to all record
artists. If you want to do a record for free at my house, you can do
it absolutely for free. All you got to do is give me a credit at the
end of the album. And they’re like, thank you, because it’s eating
their budget up.
What do you think about
Curtis’ business ideas?
You know what the sad part about it is? Curtis is necessary.
Some of them are worse than others, but if you don’t have a
Curtis… If it was up to me, I’m artistic all day, so I would never
get it done. Because I don’t have an ability to do business,
relentless business. I would be somewhere in the village playing a
banjo. Unfortunately, the bad strain in Curtis–and people who are
like Curtis–is that they can deliver the dream, but they can’t
execute. And that’s what eats away at him. All the girls are
screaming for these artists, but they’ll [the Curtises] never be
able to sing. If you look in their lives, they’ve always wanted to
be an artist, or wanted to do something artistic, but they can’t do
it, so they do the business. But if you don’t have the person like
Curtis, then you might not have the business.
You’ve got a lot of
projects coming up as a producer. Are you worried you’re pushing
yourself into the Curtis-type role?
Here’s
the thing. I’ve got people that do the business part of it, and I’m
more there on the creative side. I’m there to protect the creativity
of whatever we’re producing. And that’s a better fix. But you gotta
have somebody there that’s pressing the gas. But you know what’s
funny? My friend called from the screening, and he said, “Man,
when girls see what Jamie Foxx did in the movie to Beyonce, they’re
going to slap the shit out of him.” [Woman’s voice] “You
tell Jamie Foxx that was messed up
what he did to Beyonce! That’s some BULLSHIT!” But
then you run into the executives. And they say, “Jamie, Curtis
was great! I don’t get it. He was misunderstood. So there is that
person out there who looks at that business as art, too. And when
you do look at people who have orchestrated a thing like that, there
is an art to the business.
Is it hard to stay
friends with people in the music industry?
It’s tough to maintain friendships in hip-hop. Because I’ll
like one rapper, and then I’m hanging out with another rapper. And
he’s like [whispers] “Yo, I don’t like him. I got beef with
him.” So now you’re scared to talk to anybody, because this
guy’s pitted against that guy. It’s a little weird because nobody
else does that. You don’t see Johnny Mathis mad at Neil Diamond,
saying, “I don’t like the chords he sings. This is
bullshit!” You don’t see Kenny Rogers and Lee Greenwood have
beefs. That’s the weird thing about it. So I tell these guys,
“Look, you’re stupid right now. Because if you guys connected,
the music would be more enriched. And we’re already in a divisive
era right now.” So I’m the fun dude. I just stay happy and stay
cool.
Favorite albums of the
year?
That Snoop record is hot. That Jay-Z record is hot. That Game
record is hot.