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.’
