Jamie Foxx Once Shared How He Avoided Turning Into an ‘Ugly Person’ After Winning an Oscar
The Academy Awards gifted Jamie Foxx an Oscar for Ray, an accolade Denzel Washington might’ve helped pave the way for. However, Foxx acknowledged that there came a possible dark side to winning the Oscar, which he used lighthearted humor to avoid.
Jamie Foxx once shared how he remained true to himself after winning an Oscar
Many were rooting for Foxx to win the Best Actor award for Ray, which Foxx credited Tom Cruise for helping him win. Oprah Winfrey even once gave Foxx a stern talking to when she felt he wasn’t taking his one chance at Oscar glory seriously. When the Academy read Foxx’s name at the 2005 ceremony, the Back In Action star felt he wasn’t the only person who won that night.
“At that same time, it was wonderful for everybody involved because on our side of town, for us black folk, it was really something to celebrate,” Foxx once told Vibe. “I did it; I quietly did it my own way. I didn’t go to the Vanity Fair party. I had my homie Day Brown. I said ‘Day Brown, look, set the party up.’ Don’t say it’s my party because then it’ll make it look like I knew I was gonna win, but set the party up just in case we do.”
“I remember people taking the Oscar out of my hand, holding it. ‘Aye, let me get that homie,’” Foxx added. “The Oscar just being passed around the room. People were taking pictures, and there was dark liquor and smoke in the air, you know. I mean, it was a moment. We really had fun doing that.”
But Foxx knew the perception of him would shift after winning the award, and not necessarily in a good way. Additionally, Foxx didn’t want the Oscar to get to his head. So he took steps to avoid getting an inflated ego.
“So what you have to do every day is kill that Oscar beast and go out and try and take two or three steps back and not be the ugly person that it can turn you into. And the way I’ve done that is to just keep telling jokes about it,” Foxx once said, according to Black Film.
Instead, Foxx saw the Oscars as a bargaining chip to land the film roles he truly wanted.
“Now they’ll offer you those roles, and we create on the dribble. We’re basketball players; we create off the dribble. So we needed it. We needed it so we can set things up for our career in the future. When I say create off the dribble, that’s what I mean,” Foxx said.
Jamie Foxx joked that his taste in women changed after winning an Oscar
Foxx considered himself a much different Oscar winner than other actors who won or received nominations for the award. The comedian didn’t even take his award home. Additionally, he hosted his own Oscar party in Miami. While partying, Foxx did what guests knew he did best: He made them laugh.
“It was like wow, yes, they won, but with me I was down in Miami after I won cracking jokes. I’m able to talk about things with those guys that maybe some of the other Oscar winners couldn’t talk about,” he said.
Foxx also quipped that his approach to dating was different from other Oscar contenders. Because of his newfound status, Foxx joked that he flirted with a more mature crowd of women than he did before.
“I think what it is is a different type of women when you win an Oscar,” Foxx said. “It’s like all you young women in the club, I’m not messing with you right now. I’m with the 35 and older women with their own companies, and they break down everything like, ‘That night you won, I was so touched.’ And I’m like, ‘Girl, I’m going to touch you again.'”
But comments like those were yet another reason why Foxx didn’t consider himself like other Oscar winners.
“These are things that I can say that maybe Halle and Denzel can’t say cause I never get to joke. I told Will I was making love to this girl after I won the Oscar, and she said, ‘Oh, Jamie.’ I said no, no, no, that’s not my name. ‘Oh, Academy Award winner Jamie,’” he said. “So, I tell you if you don’t have one [an Oscar] get you one.”
