Arts & Entertainment
Jamie Foxx: The Django Unchained Interview
Academy Award-winning
actor, talented Grammy
Award-winning
musical
artist and comedian Jamie
Foxx is one of Hollywood’s
rare, elite multi-faceted per-
formers. He was last seen in
Horrible Bosses and also
recently lent his vocal tal-
ents to the popular animated
adventure RIO, as a canary
named ‘Nico.’
Meanwhile, Jamie recent-
ly executive produced a
sketch comedy series called
“In the Flow with Affion
Crockett” as well as “Thun-
der Soul,” a documentary
chronicling the achieve-
ments of Houston’s Kash-
mere High School Stage
Band.
In addition to his out-
standing work in film, Foxx
has enjoyed a thriving
career in music. In Decem-
ber 2010, he released his
fourth album, “Best Night
of My Life,” featuring
Drake, Justin Timberlake,
Rick Ross, T.I., and other
artists. In January 2010,
Foxx and T-Pain’s record
breaking #1 song “Blame
It” off of his previous
album, “Intuition,” won
“Best R&B performance by
a duo/group with vocals” at
the 52nd Annual Grammy
of the Broadway
musical, Dreamgirls.
C ELEBRITY That came on the
I NTERVIEW heels of his Best Actor
Academy Award-win-
ning performance as
the legendary Ray
by Kam
Charles in Ray.
Williams
His big-screen break
came back in 1999
when Oliver Stone
cast him as star quar-
Awards.
terback Willie Beamen in
In 2010, Foxx delivered a Any Given Sunday. The
hilarious cameo appearance versatile thespian’s addi-
in “Due Date,” and tional film credits include
appeared in the hit romantic Ali, Miami Vice, Jarhead,
comedy “Valentine’s Day.” Stealth, Bait, Booty Call,
The year before, he starred The Truth about Cats and
opposite Gerard Butler in Dogs, The Great White
Overture Films’ dramatic Hype, and an Oscar-nomi-
thriller Law Abiding Citi- nated supporting role in
zen.
Collateral.
Jamie demonstrated his
Jamie first rose to fame as
affinity and respect for fic- a comedian, from which he
tional portrayals with The initiated a potent career tra-
Soloist in which he played jectory of ambitious proj-
Nathaniel Anthony Ayer, a ects. After spending time on
real-life musical prodigy the comedy circuit, he
who developed schizophre- joined
Keenan
Ivory
nia and dropped out of Jul- Wayans,
Jim
Carrey,
liard, becoming a homeless Damon Wayans and Tommy
musician who wonders the Davidson in the landmark
streets of Los Angeles. Prior Fox sketch comedy series,
to that, he played the leader “In Living Color,” creating
of a counter-terrorist team some of the show’s funniest
in The Kingdom.
and
most
memorable
In December 2006, Foxx moments. In 1996, he
was seen in the critically launched his own series,
acclaimed screen adaptation
“The Jamie Foxx Show,”
on the WB Network.
Here, he talks about
playing the title role of
slave-turned-bounty
hunter Django opposite
Christoph Waltz, Samuel
L. Jackson, Kerry Wash-
ington and Leonardo
DiCaprio in Quentin
Tarantino’s
Django
Unchained.
Kam Williams: Hi
Jamie, thanks so much for
the time. I’m honored to
have another opportunity
to interview you.
Jamie Foxx: [Playfully
clears his throat, before
answering in a very
refined tone] Why thank
you. [Chuckles. Then,
speaks in his normal
voice] What’s happening
with it, Kam?
KW: I suppose I should
start by asking if you’d like
to comment on the recent
shootings in Connecticut?
JF: I got two daughters,
man, and all I want people
to do is to mourn the loss of
these precious kids and their
teachers and to pray that
their families heal.
KW: What interested you
in Django Unchained?
JF: Quentin Tarantino…
Leonardo
DiCaprio…
Samuel
L.
Jackson…
Christoph Waltz… Kerry
Washington… Oh, man! It
was like an all-star team.
What’s funny is that I didn’t
know anything about Djan-
go, and I was hearing all this
buzz and then I saw online
how the biggest actor in the
world, Will Smith, was
going to work with Quentin
Tarantino. And I was like,
“Damn! There’s another
project I didn’t know
nothing about.” But luckily,
I somehow got a chance to
meet Quentin and read the
script which I thought was
brilliant. Next thing you
know, I was in a room talk-
ing with him about trying to
make it happen.
KW: Did you have any
reservations?
JF: I didn’t have a knee-
jerk reaction like some peo-
ple did to the language and
See FOXX on page 8
December 19, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 7