You’ve also got a lot of ensemble movies where you’re kind of the leader of the group. Do you have a sense of that being a leader on these projects?

Jamie Foxx: I think what’s best for me right now is having that ensemble because until you graduate to your Will Smith level it’s good to have people around. Yeah, you’ve got to graduate to that.  That’s some big boots up in there but I like having it that way because I’m used to sort of playing with the ensemble in the In Living Color days it was ensemble even when you work with someone like Will Smith I was able to fit in somewhere so I like that comfortable spot where you’re not having to put everything on your shoulders and you working with people like Chris Cooper, you’re working with Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman so you know that you’re in good company.

Jamie, back to The Soloist I was wondering just how much time you have to prepare for that role?  Are you learning to play the violin?

Jamie Foxx: Learning to play the cello and the violin.

Just sort of the research I assume that you’re all trying to film it before the strike?

Jamie Foxx: The research—we’ll have plenty of time to film it before the strike.  We went downtown to where he lives and this guy he’s still posh even within his situation so wherever he’s sleeping he cleans as far as he can see.  He cleans that area before he sleeps. He pays attention to detail like you wouldn’t believe.  Not to give the whole thing away but when he plays that’s what drowns out the voices in his head.  You have a voice in your head right now, right that tells you I’ve got to get home and clean up this thing. Oh, I left this on the…imagine having 12 voices going on in your head at the same time.  So he’s an incredible person.

Who’s playing the reporter?

Jamie Foxx: I don’t want to say right because I don’t know if the deal is done right now.

Do you resemble him physically at all?

Jamie Foxx: Yeah, he’s African-American (the room laughs).  He’s a black dude.

How do you pick the roles that you do and having won an Oscar does that play a part in your saying no, I won an Oscar I can’t do that anymore?

Jamie Foxx: Yeah, I mean, I want to do everything.  I want to do the Rush Hours, I wanted to do all the stuff but I have a great team with the agents and my managers who said Foxx if you do that you may put yourself out there and you may not be able to come back to what you’ve built and he said those people in this room, you’re not necessarily catering to them but you have to use them as a measuring stick for your body of work, so whenever we go into something we see how much we can get out of it and how smart, how clever and how provocative we can be and how we can show you something different because your fans, you know, most of your fans are going to go and support and see what you do and say oh, I liked that but when you think of people that are writing about you and sort of watching your career you think along the lines of what will they say?  What question will they ask you about this character since you did this character that way, so that’s the beauty of picking the pieces.

How do you go about working?  Do you like to rehearse like 25,000 times before you actually do the take, or do you just like to just go for it?  And the second question is what is your idea of perfect happiness?

Jamie Foxx: Ok, wow.  The way you do the…it’s different like with Michael Mann you’re going to rehearse.  You’re going to rehearse so much until you’re almost numb but what happens is now when you start you’re not acting at all. You’re just that person.  With Peter Berg it was different because he wanted to catch things on the fly and flash because this movie is like I said intense.  So he wanted to catch things that were happening organic and quick so it depends on who you’re working with.  Oliver Stone you have to work.  You have to really, really work.  And perfect happiness?  Man, that’s a…the pool is about 92 degrees, the Jacuzzi is about 102 and an avocado farm.

You were just mentioning Peter Berg and one thing I noticed watching the movie the other night is that he really likes close ups and I was just wondering are you cognoscente of that when he’s shooting you and you’ve got like just your eyes and nose?

Jamie Foxx: Yeah, and that’s a little bit of the Michael Mann school, too.  If you notice that by him being Michael Mann’s protégé he likes to catch those angles and what was great about Peter is that he was grabbing everything even why he was just sitting around.  Grab that, shoot that.  Then him being an actor it feeds into his process of showing you the movie because he knows what he wants to see and you as an actor watching a movie you know what you want to see in that movie and he’s able to give that to you.

But as an actor how does that…I mean are you cognoscente that…?

Jamie Foxx: Oh no you just keep doing your thing I think.

When you see the finished movie and so much of this is improvised, do they ask you we want to put in these 4 scenes that were deleted from the film just because they’re fun and will you do a commentary for DVD’s?  Do you like that?

Jamie Foxx: Oh, yeah you do whatever they ask you to do you know. It’s their vision and you’re still a worker so it’s a…I think they know what they’re doing.

Would you do a commentary?

Jamie Foxx: Sure.

As an African-American in leadership, did you come up with a different approach in how you wanted to make that…?

Jamie Foxx: Yes, I did.

I knew you did.

Jamie Foxx: I was into it.  What you saying—what do you mean?

What I mean is did you use a different type of leadership style or did you…?

Jamie Foxx: Yes, most definitely.  Whenever you do a piece you always ask is there anyone who’s African-American who’s doing his job, even when we were doing the Marine’s they had me meet with Marine’s that were Caucasian.  I said I want to find and I went out on my own and found a brother who was in the Marine’s. He said first of all when …saying like this job it’s colorless and he said with the black folks that were in the Marine’s he was on them tougher.  He said don’t come in here acting like we’re all cool.  You’re going to have to work harder because I had to work.  And then he switched and said but when he’d march…because he had me do my march…this was during Jarhead and I did my march and he no, no, no.  Here’s the difference.  You gotta roll your feet.  They know what’s going on and he made sure my shoes would shine just a little extra because he said in life, as an African-American, we have to work a little harder. Hold ourselves to a different standard so you take that and you put that within the movie--the same way with the federal agent and everything like that. You say ok, you gotta work a little harder because you know you have to make sure they really respect you and you have to do things differently because, you know, that is the real world. So that’s what you do.

Was the FBI culture so totally different that way though?  It seemed to be so entrenched as white guys for so long—male.

Jamie Foxx: Well, like I said you still have to work a little harder and you still have to hold—I say within myself, ok you’ve got to come in and do it a little different.  Saying put more professionalism on it, don’t make that joke right now, stay right here right now because they are watching you a little different.  That’s what I think helps the character, you know?

Do you have any specific scenes you like best in the movie?

Jamie Foxx: I just like all the action stuff towards the end.  The whole way it rides out at the end and solving the situation at the end and people cheering at the end of it.  I just like that whole…anytime it’s action I just dig that.

Do you want go back to your pure comedy roots and do a comedy movie?

Jamie Foxx: It’s got to be smart though.  It’s got to be smart.  If it’s not smart I can’t do it.

Is there going to be an album from the tour? In other words is there a night that you recorded that will be…?

Jamie Foxx: Oh, we’ve got DVD’s.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  We’ve got DVD’s.

Is it out yet?

Jamie Foxx: Not yet but we’re going to get it cranking.

Hey Jamie, you played the father with the son.  Did that make you call on your daughter, you know to fill in…did she do that?

Jamie Foxx: Yeah, anytime anybody has a kid, you know how you feel when you have a kid, you look at the world differently because your kid’s in the world now.  When it’s just you, whatever happens happens but now you pay more attention to political things. You pay more attention to things because your daughter or your son has to deal with these circumstances.