Jamie Foxx - 'I'm still learning how to stay current'

He cut quite a figure when he took to the red carpet on Monday evening at the Deauville Film Festival. Indeed, Jamie Foxx fitted in with the crop of Hollywood talent on show to promote new political thriller White House Down, but he freely admits that his initial break was a baptism of fire. Speaking to the October issue of Men’s Health, the 45-year-old Oscar-winner says he had to play to his strengths in order to hold his own while starring in breakout move Any Given Sunday. 

One thing I’ve learnt is you have to rely on someone to tell you what’s hot and what’s not as you get older,’ he said. ‘That’s what I do: I ask. I’m still learning how to stay current – and at the same time not lose who I am, not be too young.’

That desire to remain fresh and original means gradually pulling away from mainstream cinema and the ensuing media circus. He said: ‘Here’s what you’re going to unlearn now. You have to pull yourself away from the media – not be so shiny in the next 10-years, because it hurts the art and that’s the only thing that’s going to survive.
‘That’s the tricky part: how do you navigate through the world and still be an artist?’
While he strives to remain current well into his fifties, Foxx still has the physique of a man half his age – but he admits he needs to modify his rigorous work-out routine.
‘I’ve been doing bench presses my whole life,’ he said. ‘The chest, the front – but I hadn’t been working my back, so it made me hunch forward.’
Foxx’s big break came relatively late – he was 31 when Any Given Sunday was released – but he admits the resulting acclaim, awards and blockbuster movies hasn’t made him lose sight of himself.
‘You just have to live,’ he admitted. ‘I did it in the ‘hood for a long time, and then I did it uptown, where the audience is Robert De Niro and Al Pacino and all those guys.
‘You still remain the same person, and you get your stamp. It’s like a passport.’