Jamie Foxx loving life as actor/game show host
LOS ANGELES — It’s not a good time for Jamie Foxx. It’s a GREAT time.
A big reason the Oscar- and Grammywinning performer is so happy is that he’s starring in Baby Driver, the latest feature film from director-writer Edgar Wright. His role in the car chase/romance/heist movie is as the psychotic Bats, a thief who is as violently crazy as he is deadly philosophical.
The other reason for the unbridled joy that he is showing during an interview is a little surprising. Foxx is so happy because he’s also become a game show host with the new Fox series Beat-Shazam that airs 8 p.m. Thursdays.
Foxx doesn’t think the joy he’s feeling is isolated but he’s certain this a great time for actors.
“It’s a good time for entertainment,” Foxx said. “Anything he or she wants to do, there’s a great chance to get it on because people are thirsting for this kind of entertainment.
“We were trying to get Beat Shazam together for three years. I was telling my new management ‘that’ was the move.”
Foxx had seen how so many performers were diversifying. He pointed to performers like Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart who are not only huge box office draws but also have their own TV shows. Foxx wanted to star in a TV program that reflected his own deep interest in music while at the same time was “fun, funny and be full of guest stars.”
Foxx is taking his role as a game-show host very seriously. The fact he has seen people win life-changing money has touched him and there have been numerous times Foxx, who describes himself as “an emotional dude,” has had to leave the stage because he’s been crying so hard.
It hasn’t been all tears. Foxx has invited a host of his celebrity friends to be guests on the show.
Mariah Carey almost turned down the offer because she didn’t want to come on the music game show and have to sing. Foxx assured her all he wanted her to do was just come on the set to give the contestants a chance to be near her. Her appearance on the game show got the excited response Foxx had predicted.
The game show is the latest in a long list of credits for Foxx since the 49-yearold Texas native came to Los Angeles. After years on the stand-up circuit, Foxx hit it big when he joined the cast of In Living Color. Since then, he has starred in TV shows and films (including his Oscar-winning role in the 2004’s Ray) plus continued his comedy career.
Baby Driver is the latest film gig for Foxx. It features a strange group of smooth criminals who come together for illegal activities that tend to end in highspeed chases. The players include: Baby (Ansel Elgort), the laser-focused driver or few words; Buddy (Jon Hamm), a whitecollar whiz turned drug-using killer; Darling (Eiza Gonzalez), Buddy’s girlfriend whose aim is as killer as her looks; and Doc (Kevin Spacey), the mastermind of the group.
On working with Foxx, Hamm said: “There is a place you get when you are comfortable with your talent that is a real, grounded, centred place. And, it is really nice to act opposite someone who is that comfortable. It’s nice to sit across from someone who knows what they are doing.”
Creating the character of Bats was the most fun of all the criminals for Wright. That’s why he was so happy that Foxx signed on, because the actor could bring charisma and chaos to the role. That was easy for Foxx because whether it’s either very scary or very fortunate, he has known people like Bats in his life.
“When I first got to L.A., I would do stand-up comedy for anybody,” Foxx says. “I remember being at people’s houses and being in parts of this city that were different. And some of these guys, I still know.”
Foxx also had a little understanding of what it means to play a character like Bats who is always on the verge of being in big trouble because of his early days on the comedy-club circuit. One night, Foxx started doing his Mike Tyson material at a club and despite the material being a big hit in past shows, there wasn’t even a snicker. That’s when someone shouted out that Tyson was in the audience.
This was a time when Tyson was known for knocking people out just for smiling. While Foxx pondered that reality, two women in the front row taunted him about being too scared to do the joke.
“That’s when this guy yelled out: ‘Mike says do the joke and that [expletive] better be funny,” Foxx said. “So I do the joke and get a standing ovation. Mike comes up and says: ‘Ya so crazy.’