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Jamie Foxx is The Soloist
By Fred Topel | Image property of DreamWorks Pictures
 The Soloist
Jamie Foxx got intensely into character for The Soloist. He plays Nathaniel Ayers, a former Julliard cello student who wound up homeless on the streets of L.A. Lost Angeles Times Reporter Steve Lopez discovered him and helped him begin playing cello again.
Foxx on The Soloist
“This was tough because you are dealing with schizophrenia,” Foxx said .”We are halfway crazy sometimes anyway, just as an artist. We go places in our minds. That’s why we are who we are. So the first day I had to go see a psychiatrist and I’ve had some things happen to me in my previous years where I felt like I was a little weird. So I walk into this guy’s place and you really feel antsy about playing someone who has lost their mind. If I was to lose my mind that is everything. All of my creativity comes from there. If I’m not able to draw from it I would be nowhere. In doing this it was tough because as the psychiatrist said, it is like taking your brain, when you are schizophrenic, and putting it through a meat grinder and then having to think. It is a very horrid place to be in as a person.”
Once Foxx took on the role, his friends and colleagues started to notice the difference. “I remember being at a function where Stephen Spielberg was at and he looked at me and said, ‘Are you okay? Because I know this is tough for you playing something like this.’ I was thinking maybe he was reading something, because I was actually going through things like I was actually knowing, which is a little weird, but I was actually knowing why Nathaniel was acting the way he was acting, which may trip you out a little bit. Because when he would say things, ‘Green jacket, red this, blue jean,’ he was saying it to try and stay sane, but by saying it over and over again and saying it out loud it becomes, ‘What’s wrong with this guy? He’s insane.’ I understood that.”
 The Soloist
 The Soloist
 The Soloist
Perhaps Foxx had some real Nathaniel Ayers moments of his own. “I called my manager at three o’clock in the morning and said, ‘I know why he is the way he is.’ I’m buck naked in my bathroom on the phone with my manager, saying, ‘I did it now, I know why he is the way he is. This is what’s going to happen. I’m going to end up going crazy. I’m going to end up getting fired from the movie. I’m going to be homeless, but I’m going to be a great piano player. I’m just telling you what it is. I’m not crazy, but I know exactly what it is. And I know why he plays the music.’ And he said, ‘Why?’ Because the music soothes his mind and that is why he plays the music.”
Don’t be alarmed. This happened for other musicians Foxx played and that turned out fine. “I remember doing Ray Charles, and my friend Lamonte says, ‘How’s Ray coming along?’ and I went, ‘I’m him.’ And he said, ‘No, I mean…’ and I said, ‘No, you don’t understand. I’m him.’ And when he got there he understood what it meant to be him. When I was Nathaniel Anthony Ayers for that whole year and not until a few months later, I would talk to [Robert Downey Jr.] in some serious situations saying, ‘I’m kinda going through some things.’ And he would say, ‘Dude, I’ve been through it all.’”
The Soloist opens to theaters on April 24th.
For the trailer, poster and more movie info, go to the The Soloist Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of DreamWorks Pictures
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