Entertainment, Movies - Navy Times

Fox mixes acting, music again in ‘Soloist’

Any time a major star has a movie coming out, you expect some headlines.

But Jamie Foxx couldn’t have been expecting the ones he’s been getting lately. Foxx, an Oscar winner for “Ray” and costar of “The Soloist,” which opens Friday, made some untoward remarks about teen queen Miley Cyrus on his radio show, “Foxxhole.” He has since apologized, but not before causing a lot more talk about his comments than his performance in “The Soloist.”

Which is a shame, because Foxx is quite good as Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a schizophrenic, Juilliard-educated musician found living on the streets of L.A. by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez (played in the film by Robert Downey Jr.). Foxx himself is a classically trained musician, something he drew upon for the role. Recently, he talked about that, his comedy and music careers (his latest album, “Intuition,” was released in December) and his co-star (but not, alas, about Cyrus; this interview took place before the incident occurred).

Question: Your music career is hot again, you do comedy on the radio and you act. Are you a musician, a comic or an actor?

Answer: When I’m doing music, I’m a musician; when I’m doing acting, I’m an actor; when I’m cracking jokes, I’m a comic. But the music right now is really exploding.

Q: You got to combine your music skills with acting in “The Soloist.” It seems like a tricky character to find.

A: He’s really me. I’ll tell you what I mean. When I was 18 years old, somebody slipped me something in my drink and I lost it. And it was very, very tough. I was in and out of the hospital. The only thing that kept me going was there was a guy ... on campus who would talk to me every night till I went to sleep telling me everything was OK. I played music, because I played the piano at the time, I was a classical pianist, and that’s what kept me through. I’m Nathaniel Anthony Ayers. It’s just that he dealt with a different situation. He’s actually schizophrenic.

But I called my manager at 3 o’clock in the morning as I was learning how to be Nathaniel Anthony Edwards, and I’d say I got it, I understand exactly what he’s about. He does this, that and the other for this reason, he does that for that reason, he plays music for this reason. And my manager said, “Jamie, I’m on my way over. I’m a little concerned (laughs).” But when he got over, I was still ranting about how I know this guy, I know this guy, and I’m going to end up homeless, and he says, “Foxx, you’re sounding crazy.” I said I know I sound crazy, but to me it makes perfect sense.

Q: The character is funny, but you want to laugh with him, not at him.

A: It’s OK to laugh at him. He’s OK with that, too. It all makes perfect sense. What Nathaniel Anthony Ayers is, he’s a happened-to-be person. He went to Juilliard, who happened to be able to play great music, who happened to have schizophrenia, who happened to go to L.A. and become homeless and who happened to run into Steve Lopez and start a great friendship.

Q: You play piano, but in the film you play the violin and cello. Can you play?

A: The playing is actually music we had played by Ben Hung (of the Los Angeles Philharmonic). But what I wanted to do was to be able to play the song with my fingers exactly like it would be played. ... What we did for hours and hours and hours, we just made sure that we had our hands, the bowing and everything at the right place so that when people saw it, they were like, OK, this is legit, as opposed to people (who) cut away and do all sorts of tricks. We wanted to have the camera on me the whole time.

Q: Did your musical training help?

A: It helped, but it was tough to play the violin and the cello. It’s something I wouldn’t just say, OK, I’m going to do this other hobby, because you will get frustrated. I love it, but I’ll stick with the piano.

Q: Music was your first love, right?

A: Music is what I wanted to be. If the music career had happened when I wanted it to happen, you never would have heard of me, because I would have had a song to come out, it would have been great in, like, 1987, and I would be out of date. I’d be somewhere performing on the base in South Korea. Luckily, it came in reverse. Luckily, the comedy came and the acting came and the music came where it was. Now I can literally stay in the music for a while, because music is so different now.

Q: It also seems as if your music is where you ground yourself.

A: Music is everything. If I hear a great song, it’ll make me think of a scene. Or if I’m doing a joke, it’ll make me think of what music will go with this joke or with this comedy scene. It all works together, but music is the base of everything, man. You don’t do anything without music.

Q: What music was playing in your head while you were shooting “The Soloist?”

A: (Ayers) was into Beethoven, but when I was doing scenes, this was more like the “Requiem.” At certain points, going in my head was (sings several seconds of the work). That’s what was going in my mind, was something that was moving. So it was a little bit of the Beethoven, but in my mind was a lot of Mozart, because Mozart was doing the “Requiem,” he passed away doing it. He was tortured at that time. He was at his most tortured and his most talented at that time.

Q: How was working with Downey?

A: Man, Robert Downey Jr. is the best. To be honest, I’ve worked a lot of great people, from Tom Cruise to Will Smith to Al Pacino. But there’s something so very interesting about Robert Downey Jr. “Iron Man” was just about to come out (during shooting). So to see him like a child before Christmas — “What am I gonna get, what is this gonna be like?” — I said, dude, I can assure you, you’re about to be (in the) stratosphere right now. And to see him still, every day on the set, on time, just bringing it every single day, and not one false moment. ... It’s great to be able to work with people like that. Those are the kind of relationships and friendships that you maintain and hold on to.

Q: Did it make you up your game?

A: Oh, of course. You can’t come to the set slipping. You’ve got to come ready.

Q: There is a scene when Ayers and Lopez are watching the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and you have a look of rapture on your face. How’d you get that?

A: That’s me. The music was playing. That’s me (hums). When you hear that starting, if you’re like me, a person that’s classically trained, that’s like watching Michael Jordan slam dunk. That’s what that means to me. Hopefully, people get that and understand it.