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UserpicJamie Unchained
Posted by Kam Williams
17.12.2012

Jamie Foxx
The "Django Unchained" Interview
with Kam Williams

Academy Award-winning actor, talented Grammy Award-winning musical artist and comedian Jamie Foxx is one of Hollywood's rare, elite multi-faceted performers. He was last seen in Horrible Bosses and also recently lent his vocal talents to the popular animated adventure RIO, as a canary named 'Nico.'

Meanwhile, Jamie recently executive produced a sketch comedy series called "In the Flow with Affion Crockett" as well as "Thunder Soul," a documentary chronicling the achievements of Houston's Kashmere High School Stage Band.

In addition to his outstanding work in film, Foxx has enjoyed a thriving career in music. In December 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 Awards.

In 2010, Foxx delivered a hilarious cameo appearance in "Due Date," and appeared in the hit romantic comedy "Valentine's Day." The year before, he starred opposite Gerard Butler in Overture Films' dramatic thriller Law Abiding Citizen.

Jamie demonstrated his affinity and respect for fictional portrayals with The Soloist in which he played Nathaniel Anthony Ayer, a real-life musical prodigy who developed schizophrenia and dropped out of Julliard, becoming a homeless musician who wonders the streets of Los Angeles. Prior to that, he played the leader of a counter-terrorist team in The Kingdom.

In December 2006, Foxx was seen in the critically acclaimed screen adaptation of the Broadway musical, Dreamgirls. That came on the heels of his Best Actor Academy Award-winning performance as the legendary Ray Charles in Ray.

His big-screen break came back in 1999 when Oliver Stone cast him as star quarterback Willie Beamen in Any Given Sunday. The versatile thespian's additional film credits include Ali, Miami Vice, Jarhead, Stealth, Bait, Booty Call, The Truth about Cats and Dogs, The Great White Hype, and an Oscar-nominated supporting role in Collateral.

Jamie first rose to fame as a comedian, from which he initiated a potent career trajectory of ambitious projects. After spending time on the comedy circuit, he joined Keenan Ivory Wayans, Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans and Tommy Davidson in the landmark Fox sketch comedy series, "In Living Color," creating some of the show's funniest and most memorable moments. In 1996, he launched his own series, "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 Washington 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 Django, 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 talking 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 people did to the language and the violence. My stepfather was a history teacher at Lincoln High School in Dallas. So, I was already familiar with the N-word and the brutality of slavery. What I was drawn to was the love story between Django and Broomhilda and how he defends and gets the girl in the end. I thought it was just an amazing and courageous project.

 

KW: Children's book author Irene Smalls says: In this film you turn the docile stupid black man myth on its head. You also portray the enduring love of a black man for his woman.

JF: Most definitely! When you see the slave who's been chained and whipped with no way out, and he finally catches up to this, some people call that revenge. But I say, "No, it's righting a wrong at that time." You've been wronged for so long, and here's your karma personified, standing in this funny blue suit. And on the end of that suit is your maker. You've never seen that in a movie before, at least not when it comes to slavery. Ordinarily, when the slave gets a chance to hold the whip or the gun, they start singing a hymn or doing the speech about "If I do this, I'll be as bad as you." We come out with a mix-tape, and that's it. But with Quentin Tarantino, it's just like a regular Western. The bad guy has to pay, and the good guy gets his woman.

 

KW: Have you seen the film with a black audience? Were people talking back at the screen?

JF: Yeah, they were yelling like crazy.

 

KW: Irene also says: In both your stage name and your career choices you've paid homage to great black artists who have come before you. Is this film another acknowledgement of that legacy?

JF: Absolutely! I know this might sound strange, but some of the people I actually studied for this film were a little more contemporary. Of course, I started with the original film Django and Clint Eastwood's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but I also watched Wesley Snipes in New Jack City, and Denzel Washington in Glory and A Soldier's Story. Those performances moved me in a way that I cannot explain. So, you're seeing me tip my hat to those guys in this film.

 

KW: Film student Jamaal Green says: Jamie, you are such a talent in so many areas, it seems like there isn't anything you can't do. Is there any chance that directing will be something you may try next?

JF: We're doing a directing thing with Canon and Ron Howard, a special where we have people send in pictures. I would also like to direct some comedies with people like Chris Tucker, Kevin Hart and Mike Epps, and go to work with them on some fun stuff.

 

KW: Nick Antoine was wondering whether you're ever going to get around to doing Skank Robbers, that long-rumored film based on the characters Wanda and Sheneneh that you and Martin Lawrence played on In Living Color?

JF: No, that's not going to happen.

 

KW: This question is from your co-star Kerry Washington: If you were an animal, what animal would you be?

JF: Wow! If I were an animal, I would be an eagle.

 

KW: The Melissa Harris-Perry question: How did your first big heartbreak impact who you are as a person?

JF: Guys don't adapt as well as women do to getting their heart broken for the first time. It's tragic. I really wanted to be in love, get married, have kids and buy a wood-paneled station wagon for the family. But it didn't work out, and, boy, it wrecked it!

 

KW: Would you mind coming up with a Jamie Foxx question I could ask other celebrities when I interview them?

JF: Hmm... [Thinks] If you only had 24 hours to live, what would you do? Would you do the bad stuff, you never got a chance to do, or would you do good stuff to make sure you make it into heaven?

 

KW: Great question! Thanks! Harriet Pakula-Teweles says: You have so much fun singing. What would be your dream band, if you could select the members from any group?

JF: My dream band? Jesus Christ! I would start with Prince, and then Questlove and Buddy Rich on the drums, Rick James on the bass, and Herbie Hancock on the piano. The horn section would be Miles Davis on lead trumpet, with Wynton and Branford Marsalis. I'd have Santana on lead guitar and Sheila E. doing percussion. My hype man would be Jerome [Benton] from The Time, and my singing group would be New Edition. There it is!

KW: Great band! Thanks again for the time, Jamie, and best of luck with the film.

JF: Thanks, Kam.

To see a trailer for Django Unchained, visit:


The Central Park Five
Film Review by Kam Williams

Around 9 PM on April 19, 1989, a 28 year-old, female jogger was brutally beaten, sexually assaulted and left for dead in a wooded area of Central Park located off the beaten path. Because she was an investment banker with an Ivy League pedigree, the NYPD felt the pressure to apprehend the perpetrators of the heinous crime ASAP.

Within hours, cops had extracted confessions from Anton McCray, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana, Jr., teenagers who had been denied their right to an attorney. Although none of the five had ever been arrested before, they were all convicted of rape and attempted murder on the strength of those incriminating admissions alone.

Part of the explanation for the legal lynching was that the victim was a wealthy white woman while the accused were poor black kids from Harlem. The press was all too willing to exploit the hot button issues of color and class, and the media sensationalized the case's lurid details, coining the term "wilding" to describe the alleged behavior of the defendants.

Real estate magnate Donald Trump even took out full-page ads in every New York City daily newspaper, calling for the death penalty and saying that the boys "should be executed for their crimes." In the face of the vigilante-like demand for vengeance, no one seemed concerned that the suspects' DNA failed to match the only semen found at the scene.

Sadly, they were only exonerated in 2002 after having completely served sentences ranging from 6 to 13 years when Matias Reyes, a serial rapist whose DNA was a match, confessed to the crime because of his guilty conscience. This gross miscarriage of justice is recounted in The Central Park Five, a riveting documentary co-directed by the father-daughter team of Ken and Sarah Burns.

The film features reams of archival footage, including videotapes of the framed quintet's coerced confessions. Mixed in are present-day reflections by them, their lawyers, and relatives, as well as by politicians, prosecutors and other pivotal players.

A heartbreaking expose' about a rush to judgment which ruined five, innocent young lives.

Excellent (4 stars)

Unrated

Running time: 119 minutes

Distributor: Sundance Selects

To see a trailer for The Central Park Five, visit


This Is 40
Film Review by Kam Williams


When we first met Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) in Knocked Up (2007), the couple was in crisis, primarily on account of her controlling behavior. She unreasonably suspected her husband of cheating because of the odd hours he kept as a Rock and Roll talent scout.

Their subplot simply provided an amusing diversion from a front story revolving around the farcical plight of a popular TV host who ended-up impregnated by a slacker after a one-night stand. With This Is 40, miserably-married Pete and Debbie have graduated from peripheral characters to the protagonists of their own battle-of-the-sexes comedy.

At the point of departure, we find them both on the verge of turning 40 years-old. She's in denial, still trying to pass for 38, and generally dreading the impending arrival of her birthday.

Meanwhile, he's regressed behaviorally, and routinely undermines any potential romantic mood by flaunting unappetizing bodily functions ranging from flossing to flatulence. So, it comes as no surprise that the spark has gone completely out of their relationship.

This sad state of affairs is established during the picture's opening tableaus when see how, between work and raising two high-maintenance daughters (Maude and Iris Apatow), Pete and Debbie are too drained by the end of the day to even think about lovemaking. In fact, the most passion either exhibits is for their jobs.

He's the CEO of a struggling, retro record company representing obscure has-beens like Gram Parker, and she owns a trendy boutique facing its own financial woes following embezzlement on the part of a trusted employee (Megan Fox or Charlyne Yi). On top of the burning question "Can Pete and Debbie get their groove back?" this raunchy sitcom ratchets up the tension around the prospect of losing their multimillion-dollar McMansion.

It's important to note that This Is 40 was written and directed by Judd Apatow, master of the shocksploitation genre whose gross-out productions have basically glorified profanity, potty humor, graphic sexuality and gratuitous nudity. This offering won't disappoint his diehard fans in that regard, and even has the rudiments of a plot for folks whose IQs have reached room temperature.

A midlife crisis comedy marking the milestone with a tribute to immaturity!

Very Good (2.5 stars)

Rated R for sexuality, nudity, crude humor, drug use and pervasive profanity

Running time: 134 minutes

Distributor: Universal Pictures

To see a trailer for This Is 40, visit


Hitchcock
Film Review by Kam Williams

It wasn't long after the Hollywood premiere of North by Northwest in July of 1959 that Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) was already searching for his next project, since he was at his most content making movies. After passing on all the scripts being pitched by Paramount, the master of suspense became curious about a recently-published novel inspired by the gruesome exploits of a Wisconsin serial killer (Michael Wincott).

Hitchcock found the book "Psycho" captivating, and acquired the rights to the pulpy page-turner over the objections of his agent (Michael Stuhlbarg), accountant (John Rothman), assistant (Toni Collette) and studio's president (Richard Portnow). He even had a hard time convincing his skeptical wife, Alma (Helen Mirren), whose support was always critical as his longtime collaborator and sounding board.

But once the couple decided to finance the picture themselves, they turned their attention to casting. They settled on relatively-unknown Anthony Perkins (James-D'Arcy) in the pivotal role of Norman Bates, while opting for Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johansson) over a fading star (Jessica Biel) as their ill-fated leading lady.

However, pressures continued to mount after the filming got underway, with concerns ranging from the director having to massage actresses' egos to having to figure out how to get the graphic shower scene past the censors. Unfortunately, Albert's flirtatious behavior on the set would take a toll on the relationship with a fed-up Alma disappearing with a friend (Danny Huston) to a beachfront pied-a-terre he hid from his wife.

Will she cheat or choose to reconcile with her rotund hubby, despite his roving eye? That is the real tension at the heart of Hitchcock, since everybody knows that Psycho was completed and went on to be feted as a cinema classic.

Directed by Sacha Gervasi, this delightful docudrama is based on "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho" by Stephen Rebello. What makes the movie so compelling is the badinage between Alma and Alfred as capably played by Oscar-winners Helen Mirren (for The Queen) and Anthony Hopkins (for The Silence of the Lambs).

Who knows whether their alternately acerbic and admiring interaction is accurate or pure fabrication? It almost doesn't matter when delivered oh so convincingly, ostensibly allowing the audience a rare "fly on the wall" opportunity to watch a genius and his better half weave movie magic together.

A cinematic treat offering rare peeks behind the scenes and behind the closed doors of a legendary director and the love of his life.

Very Good (3 stars)

Rated PG-13 for sexuality, violent images and mature themes

Running time: 98 minutes

Distributor: Fox Searchlight

To see a trailer for Hitchcock, visit


The Loving Story
Film Review by Kam Williams

Soon after Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving tied the knot in Washington, DC on June 2, 1958, they decided to move back to their tiny hometown of Central Point, Virginia to settle down and start a family. The groom, a bricklayer by trade, even purchased a plot of land where he promised to build his bride a house.

However, Virginia was one of 24 states where interracial marriage was still illegal because of racist laws designed to rob minorities of their dignity and to keep them in a lower social and economic status. Since Richard was white and Mildred was a mix of black and Native-American, it was just a matter of time before the local sheriff would catch wind of their illicit liaison and crack down on the felons like a ton of bricks.

And in the middle of the night, he and a posse broke down the door, dragging the newlyweds off to jail while threatening to rape Mildred. Given that this was Virginia during the disgraceful days of Jim Crow, the Lovings were, of course, ultimately found guilty and each given a one-year sentence for the crime of marrying across the color line.

As their appeal dragged on, Mildred wrote to then Attorney General Bobby Kennedy for help avoiding incarceration. He declined, but suggested she approach the American Civil Liberties Union, which did decide to take the case.

"Just tell the Supreme Court I love my wife," Richard directed the ACLU attorneys as they prepared to argue before Chief Justice Warren and his associates. In the historic Loving v. Virginia decision handed down on June 12, 1967, the Lovings' convictions were overturned and their union finally garnered the blessing and government protection that had so eluded them for almost a decade.

All of the above is recounted in heartbreaking fashion in The Loving Story, a combination biopic and courtroom drama directed by Nancy Buirski. What makes the film so touching are the reams of archival footage of the unfortunate couple at the center of the controversy.

For the lovebirds are so young and so innocent, it's hard to fathom why anyone would even seek to separate let alone imprison them. A moving, must-see documentary about the Lovings' belated vindication and the elimination of one of the last vestiges of segregation.

Could it be more fitting that the litigants in the landmark case eradicating the crime of loving a person of a different color would be named Loving!

Excellent (4 stars)

Unrated

Running time: 77 minutes

Distributor: Icarus Films

To see a trailer for The Loving Story, visit

In NYC, The Loving Story opens 12/10 at the Maysles Cinema.