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Jamie Foxx on The Kingdom
By Fred Topel | Image property of Universal Pictures.
The Kingdom
Jamie Foxx leads another ensemble cast in The Kingdom, the story of an FBI team investigating a bombing in Saudi Arabia. The film deals with all the political and cultural differences between the Americans and the Saudis, but it is also a hardcore action movie.
Foxx Goes Political for The Kingdom
"I don’t know if it was necessary political as it was when you watched Ashraf (Barhom)’s character you lock onto him and say, 'Wow, look at this dude who’s a cop in Saudi Arabia,'" Foxx said. "'How does he work within this' and you sort of follow him and watching his plight and it wasn’t political. It was just about this guy trying to go to work and do his job."
Either way, it is a heavy subject to deal with terrorist attacks and investigation tactics for the duration of a film shoot, and its preproduction. After researching with the FBI, Foxx took his own sort of leadership details into the character.
"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 Marines [on Jarhead] they had me meet with Marine’s that were Caucasian. I went out on my own and found a brother who was in the Marines. He said first of all, saying like this job, it’s colorless and he said with the black folks that were in the Marines 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, '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. The same way with the federal agent and everything like that. You say, 'Okay, 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 that is the real world."
That meant adjusting some of Foxx's natural charisma. "You’ve got to come in and do it a little different. 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."
That said, Foxx still found moments to improvise moments of humor, including specific references to Terrell, TX. "Terrell has a newspaper about 14 pages and Peter Berg says, 'Say Terrell right there.' It’s good to tip your hat because that town at one point seemed so like on an island because it was 12,000 people. Railroad track separated you from the north and south side. Even being brought up in Texas I thought it was blacks, whites and Mexicans. I had never heard Jewish. Maybe I just didn’t pay attention until I got to L.A. and this all these different things so it’s good to kind of let them in on what’s going on. Your hometown, they always want to know did you forget about us. 'Don’t forget about us down here in Terrell.'"
The Kingdom opens to theatres on September 28th.
For the trailers, stills, poster and more movie info, go to The Kingdom Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Universal Pictures.
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