Jamie Foxx has done a lot in the TV and film industry. He has had his own hit television show “The Jamie Foxx Show,” starred in Hollywood blockbuster movies like “Ray” and “Django,” and is rumored to take on the role of ex Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson in an upcoming biopic about his life and career. With the laundry list of accolades Foxx has acquired over the years, I think it’s time to add another to that list:
Partly being responsible (or to blame depending on your preference) for the career of British indie pop star Ed Sheeran. In a recent interview with The Graham Norton Show Foxx revealed that the “Thinking Out Loud” singer actually slept on his couch for several weeks during his quest for stardom.
In the interview, Foxx says this was during the span of time that he hosted his own radio show in Los Angeles. If you’ve ever listened to Foxx’s radio show, then you know that Jamie had a penchant for putting young talent on display in the hopes that one of the up and comers would get their lucky break. Ed Sheeran just so happened to be one of the up-and-coming talents that Foxx took a keen liking to, leading him to take the newcomer under his wing.
During this time Foxx not only gave Sheeran somewhere to rest his head at night but also helped him find an audience and get some stage time in the form of an open-mic slot on his radio show in front of “800 black people” (Jamie’s words not mine.) Looks like it helped Sheeran find his path to notoriety, and depending on if you love or hate Ed Sheeran, you might want to thank, or beat the hell out of Jamie Foxx right now.
If you’re a part of the latter group give Foxx a chance to redeem himself. He was only lending a helping hand to an aspiring entertainer, something that has been done for him many times over the course of his career, including an intervention, staged by none other than Oprah. In an interview with Howard Stern, Foxx admits that after the success of the biopic “Ray” he began drinking and partying heavily.
That all came to an end when he received an unexpected phone call from none other than Oprah. In that call, she laid it all out on the table “Jamie you’re blowing your opportunity.” During the Howard Stern interview Foxx quoted her as saying:
“All of this gallivanting and all this kind of s—, that’s not what you want to do … I want to take you somewhere. Make you understand the significance of what you’re doing.'”
It turns out Oprah had organized an intervention at legendary composer Quincy Jones’ house. When Jamie walked in, he was taken back by the people that awaited him. “We go in the house, and there are all these old actors… Black actors from the ’60s and the ’70s. Who look like they just want to say, ‘good luck.’ They want to say, ‘don’t blow it.’“
That was a turning point in Foxx’s life and his acting career. And whether you love or hate Ed Sheeran, you have to admit that paying it forward is the right thing to do.
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