The Time Steven Spielberg Checked In on Jamie Foxx to Make Sure He Wasn't Nuts
In The Soloist, Jamie Foxx convincingly transforms himself into a homeless musical prodigy suffering from schizophrenic dementia. But was it a transformation? He's made little secret on his recent press rounds that he suffered from a childhood fear of going crazy, further exacerbated by a mysterious and scarring college incident. (We suspect he may have been dosed by another student, and spent the next 12 hours wandering around campus wondering why everyone had a laughing Satan face.)
Speaking recently to a gathering of journalists, Foxx explained how he approached a mental health professional with his concerns that if he made funny-faces with his brain, they might stay that way:
It's tough because we're artists, and we're halfway crazy to start with. So the first time I walked in, I had to go see a psychiatrist. I had some things happen to me in my previous years, where I felt a little weird. So I walked into this guy's place, a little antsy about the thought of losing my mind. 'Cause, in my mind, if I lose my mind, that's everything I have. My creativity comes from there. If I'm not able to draw from that, I would be nowhere.
The psychiatrist said [schizophrenia is] like taking your brain and putting it into a meat grinder. It's a very horrid place to be. I remember being at a function where Steven Spielberg was and he said, "Are you OK? Because I know this is tough for you, playing something like this."
And I thought, maybe he's reading something here, because I was actually going through something. This is going to sound weird, but I was actually knowing why Nathaniel was acting the way he was acting."
A mind as intuitive as Spielberg's is almost certainly attuned to noting behavioral irregularities, and they needn't be as obvious as pointing to a chocolate fondue fountain at a swanky Hollywood soiree and screaming, "Run for your lives! It's Miley Cyrus's gonorrheal discharge!" to raise red flags. Luckily, Foxx came through the shoot perfectly fine.
Comments
"My creativity comes from [my mind]."
I thought it came from the a--a-a-a--a-al-co-hol.
It really says a lot about an actor when he's in a film with Robert Downey, Jr, but people are worried about his mental state.
Spielberg knows of what he speaks. One day he's shooting War of the Worlds, next thing he knows Tom Cruise is jumping on Oprah's couch.
Five bucks on Foxx contracting chlamydia from a bicycle seat at some point during this movie.
[Photo caption]
Us Weekly Fantasia Barrino, looking better than ever, out and about in her hometown of Charlotte, NC.