Jamie Foxx was on a roll during the 2004-2005 awards season, thanks to his critically acclaimed turn as Ray Charles in “Ray.” But he would have blown it, he says, it if it weren’t for Oprah Winfrey.
“I’m having such a good time and I’m not knowing I’m f—— up,” Foxx says on “The Howard Stern Show” Tuesday, May 23. “I mean, I’m drinking, I’m doing every f—— thing you could possibly imagine and then I get a call.”
Oprah told Foxx he was ruining his career.
“She said, ‘You’re blowing it,'” Foxx says Oprah told him. “‘All of this gallivanting and all this kind of s—, that’s not what you want to do. I want to take you somewhere so it’ll make you understand the significance of what you’re doing.'”
The former talk show host brought Foxx to superproducer Quincy Jones’ house where he was greeted by iconic Black Hollywood actors, including Sidney Poitier, who was celebrating his birthday.
“‘I want to give you responsibility,” Foxx says Poitier told him. “‘When I saw your performance, it made me grow 2 inches.'”
Foxx says he burst into tears and was seated by the houseguests, who, Stern suggested, treated it like an intervention.
“They made me understand the significance of it,” he says. “Because, they said, Sidney did it and it was a character that we could all embrace. Ray Charles is also a character that we can embrace. … It’s way bigger [than me].
“To this day, it’s the most significant time in my life where it was, like, a chance to grow up,” Foxx said.
