Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Jamie Foxx fights the mob in ‘Sleepless’
Jamie Foxx fights the mob in action-thriller ‘Sleepless’
The Oscar-nominated actor talks fatherhood, action movies, and life in Hollywood.
Musician and actor Jamie Foxx is not one of those celebrities who’s nervous about revealing his age. In fact, he gets a big kick out of telling anyone who’ll listen that he’ll turn 50 this year.
“My daughter is, like, ‘Dad, will you please catch up to your age?’ Because me and all my friends, we just act the same [way] we’ve acted years ago,” says Foxx.
“It’s a different time. When I was coming up, you said you were 50 and people went, ‘Golly!’ ”
“But it’s funny. I deejay at clubs and the average age is 21, 22. [I’m hanging out] with Drake and I’m hanging out with Kanye and [everyone thinks] I’m young like them.”
Well, not everyone. “I was out [recently] and [a woman] asked me how I old I was. She was 21 or 22. I said, ‘49.’ She says, ‘Oh my God! 49! Can’t you die from that? Come on girls, he’s got 49.’ ”
But for the actor, age is just a frame of mind.
“Hey, I’m 49. I think it’s the way you live your life. I live young and I keep the weight off.”
Foxx has certainly never looked fitter than he does in his latest movie, an action extravaganza called “Sleepless.” In the film, now in wide release, he plays an undercover Las Vegas police officer who finds himself caught in a web of crooked cops and murderous gangsters.
After a sting operation fails, Foxx’s son is kidnapped by mobsters. With an internal affairs officer (Michelle Monaghan) watching his every movie, Foxx must race against time in hopes of saving the teenager and bringing the criminals to justice.
Foxx says the big draw of “Sleepless” was getting the opportunity to play a character rich in complexities.
“I think if you look at all the great characters — not to say this is a great character — but the great characters all have these layers of good and bad. There’s the struggle [between the two extremes] and that is always more interesting to watch.”
Another lure for Foxx was the chance to shoot the movie in Las Vegas, a city he called home for much of the ‘90s.
Foxx, who hails from Texas, wound up in Sin City after bottoming out in Los Angeles during the ‘90s. By the early 2000s, he was back on top thanks to his turns in Michael Mann’s “Ali” and “Collateral” as well as his Oscar-winning portrayal of Ray Charles in “Ray.”
“I ran out of money,” he says. “I was in L.A. and after the ‘94 earthquake, I had run out of cash. I had just enough cash to get a couple of acres [in Las Vegas]. Nobody was living in Vegas then. I just had my daughter at the same time too so I got out of the city and there I was in Vegas.”
Making the movie made him remember why he loves the city so much.
“You could get steak and lobster for $4.99 any time of the day,” he says with a laugh.
Foxx might have a reputation as a man who likes to party. But he takes his work seriously, too. Case in point: his fight scene with Monaghan. The actors tried to perform the sequence so authentically that Monaghan wound up nearly taking his took his tooth with her fist. Luckily, one of Foxx’s best friends is an Atlanta dentist.
“My man came out and hooked me up, took me to the office and put in the porcelain,” says Foxx.
For her part, Monaghan remembers how much Foxx wanted her to turn up the volume on the scene.
“Jamie told me, ‘Keep going. Keep going,’” recalls the actress. “I had split my knuckle [on his tooth] and I was like, ‘All right.’ It was funny because the next day we didn’t bring it up. I felt very sheepish and I was trying to cop a look, and I was like, ‘Oh my God.’”
Being a father in real life to two daughters — Annalise Bishop and Corinne Foxx — made it easy for Foxx to relate to his character, a ferocious papa bear who promises to destroy anyone who lays a finger on his offspring. Recently, the actor worked with both of his daughters in an upcoming, as yet-untitled movie project.
“My oldest daughter is seasoned, but my younger daughter is so funny,” Foxx told the Hollywood Reporter. “She’s going to steal the show. It’s amazing to work with your daughters. There is a comfort level from the start.”
The movie with his daughters isn’t Foxx’s only upcoming project. He’ll also pop up in the heist drama “Baby Driver” alongside Jon Hamm, Lily James and Kevin Spacey; and play Little John in a gritty reboot of “Robin Hood” co-starring Taron Egerton, Eve Hewson and Jamie Dornan.
Foxx says he’s always busy with his movie roles, his music career and his stint as a producer of various TV projects.
“I’ll talk to Jeremy Piven, who I think is one of the most incredible actors, and he’s saying, ‘Oh man, I’ve got to get there [for that audition].’ I said, ‘Jeremy, its tough being a white, male actor.’
“He’s like, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘There a billion of you. I mean, there are a billion white, male actors.’ I said, ‘Jeremy, there’s nine of us [African-American actors]. I’m going to work.’
“You know what I’m saying. It’s me, it’s Will [Smith], it’s Samuel [Jackson], it’s a few others. I mean hey, they got to call me on some of the [movies].”