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Jamie Foxx Rewatches Django Unchained, Ray, Collateral & More

"It was a fun ride and at this point in our careers, that's what you want." Jamie Foxx takes a walk down memory lane as he rewatches scenes from his classic works including 'Dreamgirls,' 'Collateral,' 'Ray,' 'In Living Color,' 'Django Unchained,' 'Back in Action' and more.

BACK IN ACTION is now available on Netflix, [http://www.netflix.com/backinaction]()

Director: Funmi Sunmonu
Director of Photography: Grant Bell
Editor: Christopher Jones
Talent: Jamie Foxx
Producer: Emebeit Beyene
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Production Coordinator: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Meredith Judkins; Paige Garbarini (on set)
Camera Operator: Marques Smith
Audio Engineer: Justin Fox
Production Assistant: Fernando Barajas; Lauren Boucher
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant
Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen
Additional Editor: JC Scruggs
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds

Released on 01/17/2025

Transcript

I remember Oprah,

I didn't like you playing a bad guy, Jamie Foxx.

Jamie Foxx is not a bad guy!

You notice when Oprah start singing?

Hey, Vanity Fair, I'm Jamie Foxx, AKA Kendrick Lamar

and we're gonna watch some scenes from some of my movies.

[upbeat music]

[upbeat music]

♪ I always knew you two were together ♪

[Anika] What?

♪ I always knew you two were ganging up on me ♪

Yes. ♪ She had nothing ♪

♪ To do with this change- ♪

Ooh, get them, B, get them, B.

B and J Hud. ♪ Always thinking of you ♪

That's Beyonce, man, like...

Beyonce's almost too talented for earth.

Like when you listen to a Beyonce record,

it's like, what the, this some alien shit.

Like, whew, she can sing every octave.

She's like the most talented.

And so quiet, you know?

She was doing things...

[Jamie sings]

And cut.

Like, she's the most talented.

♪ I knew you were trouble from the start ♪

Who is this dude?

♪ You were real bad trouble from the start ♪

Look at that hair.

When you watch this movie, it's about music, right?

And everybody said, Oh, Jamie Foxx is such a heel.

You know where I got the most compliments?

Other music executives. [Jamie laughs]

I don't get it.

Without you, what would they have done?

You took that piece of coal and made it a diamond.

I was like, you guys are heartless.

Like, how's the asshole?

It's like, I don't get it.

You were valuable.

[Jamie laughs]

I remember Oprah,

I didn't like you playing a bad guy, Jamie Foxx.

Jamie Foxx is not a bad guy!

You notice when Oprah start singing?

♪ Jamie Foxx ♪

But when we were putting it together,

I said, if the guy isn't bad,

then the other characters don't have anything to get over.

♪ I'm not going, even though there are times I showed ♪

When it came to the big scene where she had to say,

♪ And I am telling ♪

I said, Take your time with that.

That song and that moment is, like, the one.

And you watch her in the process of it

really find the spirituality of that character.

And we watched it onset, we watched her and said,

she just won whatever award, she just won it right there.

We were at a premier and it was, like, a big premier,

and you know, big stars and that.

Man, she got through singing, they was on they feet,

standing ovation in the premier.

She was amazing.

All right, let's get into Collateral.

Yeah, Collateral, okay.

[light music]

And if somebody had a gun to your head and said,

you gotta tell me what's going on with this person over here

or I'm gonna kill you,

what is driving- Michael Mann.

You know, you couldn't do it, could you,

because they would have to kill your ass

because you don't know what anyone else is thinking.

The car that's pulling us, the exhaust was somehow floating

into the car, bro.

And I had slept, you know, 12, 13 hours

'cause it's Tom Cruise.

Soon as I get in there...

Said, what the hell?

Why am I sleeping and the director, Wake your ass!

I said, I don't know what's wrong.

And they found out that the exhaust was...

So they had to switch it around 'cause I was snoozing.

You know how you fall asleep and don't know you asleep,

and it hit you?

Yeah, Tom, Tom, Top Gun?

He was sleep too.

We shot that on video.

It was in film.

So Michael Mann loves to do long takes.

I'm driving the cab, Tom's in the back

and we're just driving, but the takes were long.

And we shot at night.

So imagine five in the morning and I was like,

whew, I hope I don't kill the Top Gun.

[light music]

Cute title, who wrote it?

I did.

Ah, you wrote it?

[Ahmet] Yeah.

Well, sing it to me, man.

Sing it? Yeah,

it ain't like I could read the lyrics.

Okay, well, it's key of G.

Okay, key of G. [piano music]

Yeah, but it's kind of Pete Johnson thing.

Pete Johnson. [upbeat piano music]

Yeah, that's it.

You like that? Yeah.

Okay, here we go.

Two, three, four.

♪ You can talk about the pit barbecue ♪

♪ The band was jumping, the people too ♪

♪ They're doing the mess around ♪

Yeah!

♪ They're doing the mess around ♪

Ray was crazy.

Ray was something else.

Ray was a independent film, so it didn't have a studio.

As a matter of fact, the guy who paid for it,

his name was Phil Anschutz.

He's a devout Christian.

He says, I'll do the movie, but the drugs bothered him.

He didn't like the fact that Ray was doing drugs.

So if you put the redemptive quality,

I will give you the money.

But he gave us half the money first just to get us started.

Phil Anschutz comes to New Orleans

to check on his investment,

so we recreated the Saenger Theatre 1967,

this isn't in the movie.

We got a 30-piece orchestra there

and when Phil Anschutz walks in, we're gonna do a song

to show him, you know...

So he's literally transported back into 1967.

He walks in, they hit me

and we do Let the Good Times Roll.

So when he walked in...

♪ Ay y'all, tell everybody Ray Charles in town ♪

♪ Got a dollar and a quarter and I'm just ready to clown ♪

♪ Don't let nobody play me cheap ♪

♪ I got 50 cents more than I plan to keep ♪

♪ Now, let the good times roll ♪

Band... [simulates band music]

♪ Oh baby ♪

And it's like, the roof came off.

And then I said, I'm not gonna break character,

just walk me over to Phil Anschutz.

So they walked me over to Phil Anschutz.

I said, Hey, man, somebody told me

the money bags was here, man.

We needed a couple of more dollars, man.

And then he wrote the check.

All right, that's pretty good, let me take it from here.

♪ Now, this band's gonna play from nine to one ♪

♪ Everybody here is gonna have some fun ♪

♪ Doing the mess around ♪

♪ Ah, doing the mess around ♪

The director when he hired me says,

Listen, the only thing I gotta do is I gotta find someone

that could play the piano

'cause other than that, have to...

I can't shoot you like this.

I said, Oh, I'll play the piano.

I went to college on a classic pianoship.

Really?

Yeah, I got a scholarship.

When I said that, now he wanted me

to learn every single note so it looks authentic.

And then I met Ray Charles.

He comes in, I'm at the studio.

Ay, yeah, hey man, good to see you, man.

Good to see you, man.

I said, Well, Mr. Charles, I'm just trying

to do the best I can to portray you.

Look, baby, can you play the blues?

If you can play the blues, man, you can do anything, man.

And so there we are on dual pianos

and we start playing the blues with each other.

When I hit a wrong note.

Damn!

You know, I guess, you know his ears are sensitive.

Now, why would you do that, why you hit that?

I said, I'm sorry, Mr. Charles,

I'm just trying to catch up with you.

Well, hit the right note, man.

You know what, that's what life is, man,

taking the time to hit the right note.

I said, Oh.

So I took the time, hit the right note.

Once we finished, he got upset.

Ay, kid's got it and he walked out.

The other thing though was that was the old Ray Charles.

So I had to find the young.

So I went to Quincy Jones' house.

So he goes in his room and comes out with a cassette tape.

Maybe you could find something on here.

I'm like, Well, first of all,

I gotta find a cassette player.

You know this is the 21st century.

So I had to rent a car from the airport.

On the cassette was a lady named Dinah Shore.

She had a show back at that time and you hear,

Hi, this is Dinah Shore with The Dinah Shore Show,

here today with two wonderful musicians

in Mr. Kenny Rogers and Mr. Ray Charles.

And in the back you hear the young Ray.

You know what, Dinah, I'm just so happy to be here.

You know, I didn't know you know my music.

That's just so grand, you know?

And just being here on your show...

And I was like, wow, that's the young Ray.

Now, here's how we build Ray.

At one point, Dinah Shore goes, Talk about the drugs, Ray,

and what you've been dealing with.

And Ray started to stutter.

Well, you know, I just try to...

So I stopped the tape and I said,

That's it, that's the character.

The young Ray when he's in control of everything,

when he's in control of his music, things like that,

he doesn't stutter.

But when he's asked to be responsible for his actions,

when he cheats on his wife and has a baby,

it made him uncomfortable.

So we took that as that DNA

and then you see the progression of how Ray got to be Ray.

[light music]

Now let's meet the bachelors you didn't pick.

Wanda, bachelor number one-

Oh gosh.

What's up, man?

Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh.

Now say hello to bachelor number three, Steve Big Buns.

This is funny. [audience laughs]

[Jamie laughs]

[audience laughs]

Now let's meet the bachelor you did pick.

Here's bachelor number two, lucky Paul Nelson.

[Paul shouts] [audience laughs]

Not the underwear, not the dukes, not the dukes.

You can't do that today.

Even today, I mean, come on.

So these are the initial reaction.

They didn't see me 'cause I would say,

Don't tell them how I look.

[Jamie laughs]

I actually did part of Wanda the way I got onto the show.

I wouldn't let them see what I had on

until they were action.

So when they're walking around that corner,

you know, it's authentic.

We knew that we were doing something great

in comedic cinema.

Like, you don't get these types of moments often.

And I don't think you actually have seen

a pairing like that in generations.

And you have great guys out there,

Key & Peele and Saturday Night Live.

But comedians would give their left arm to have that type

of comedic juggernaut of a sketch.

Now, wearing the dress came with complications.

You know, you get known for that in this.

But the history of Wanda in the spirit of Geraldine

and all of the great guys

who've donned these characters to play,

whether it's Some Like It Hot or whether it's Eddie Murphy.

Sherman, Sherman, Sherman, Sherman, Sherman, yes.

These characters were like artistic statements

in comedy, you know?

We wanna entertain you and we just having fun.

We're just being funny.

[light music]

Ah hell yeah, I'm not in a dress in this.

Steve, how you like my new duds?

You know, before now I didn't know

that burgundy was my color.

Incredible, it was a all-star game.

Christoph Waltz, me and Christoph worked for 12 weeks first

before anyone else came on the set.

So we was shooting our thing.

Christoph's was amazing.

And then all of a sudden here comes Leonardo DiCaprio

and Samuel Jackson onto the set walking in slow motion

with their vapes.

I said, Ooh, these motherfuckers is cold.

Here was the thing, though, the subject matter, the N-word.

Specifically, Leo had a hard time saying the N-word.

We're doing a read and Leo says [blank]

and then he goes, Hey, man, hey, guys, cut.

I just can't do this, this is not me.

Samuel Jackson, Say that shit, motherfucker.

[Jamie laughs]

It's just another Tuesday, fuck them.

[Jamie laughs]

And I totally, I said, Leo, you know, in slavery days,

we would never talk to each other.

So I'm not your friend, I'm not Jamie Foxx,

I'm, you know, I'm Django, so...

And as I told him, I said,

You won't be able to play that character

unless you really understand what slavery was about.

It was tough, it was horrific.

Ain't no kee-keeing with the slaves.

So the next day, I see Leo, he walks in.

I said, Leo, what's up?

L, L, what's up?

He don't speak to me, he ready.

So everybody started, you know, digging in.

Mm, show them, Sam.

Show them, Sam, give them that range.

I count six shots.

And Samuel Jackson was better than all of us.

He should've got an Oscar.

The way he would turn it on and turn it off, say action.

[Offscreen] Action.

Massa, what kind of hooves is this [blank] on this now?

Massa, okay, now I say who is this [blank] on this now?

[Offscreen] Say cut. Cut.

What'd you think?

And I'd be like, this motherfucker is a alien.

I was waiting on him to do like this,

but that's what the level was in this incredible movie.

You uppity son of a-

[house explodes]

Quentin Tarantino, he the best.

Matter of fact, people don't know.

Like, you in the movie when the house blew up,

it didn't go like that.

And after he blew the house up, which is supposed

to be the end of the movie, he goes,

Ah, it's all wrong, it's all wrong.

Everybody go home, I did it in a wrong order.

I'm gonna rewrite the whole ending of the movie.

We faked the explosion

because he had already blew the house up

and they had took months to blow it up.

But the genius of Quentin Tarantino, he just rewrote it

and made it what you saw.

[light music]

[car crashes]

Damn, what do you have against lawn furniture?

CD!

It's been a long time since I've done this.

Well, maybe you're just distracted

because your old boyfriend is trying to kill us.

We went on one date- Cameron Diaz.

He talked about Manchester United the entire time.

So you admit it, it was a date.

Go left, left, left. [car crashes]

[Jamie laughs]

Cameron Diaz, back in action.

Cameron Diaz is a national treasure.

She's done so many incredible movies.

And trying to get her to come back,

I said, Cameron, listen, we got this movie,

we promise that your feet won't touch the ground,

you'll just have a good time.

And if you just wave at your fans,

there's a lot of fans that are needing you.

Think about it.

She thought about it for awhile and she came back.

And then we were like, Oh man,

I hope we don't shit the bed.

I hope the movie's actually good.

But what was great about her when she got on the set,

she would see things.

Okay, why don't we put this here and put that there

and do this, that and do this, that and the other.

And so she was hands-on making sure

that what you saw was amazing.

And then the kids, now, luckily I have a 16-year-old.

So I said, Cameron, I could tell you how it go.

When they turn 16, they go somewhere else

and you get them hella short answers.

You know, you be excited,

aren't you just happy, good morning.

Yeah, hey.

I'm your father, I'm Jamie Foxx.

[Jamie sighs] I get it.

So we were able to put that into the film

and beyond the incredible action and the fighting,

I think the quiet moments with Cameron trying

to connect with her daughter is like gold.

I said if we're able to do that through this movie,

it's great, it's popcorn friendly, it's Netflix just sitting

at the house and you want the whole family to check it out.

And then the kids who were in it were amazing, you know?

So it was a fun ride and at this point in our careers,

that's what you want.

[light music]

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