Celebrate our own blackness , Jamie Foxx urges
Published:Tuesday | February 25, 2020 | 12:17 AM
Jamie Foxx wants to “stop thinking” about the Oscar and “celebrate his own blackness” as he picked up a special award given by the American Black Film Festival.
The 52-year-old actor was handed the recognition award for Excellence in the Arts from his friend and Django Unchained co-star at the event last Sunday night.
Collecting his award, he said: “They will always need black people because they will. When I see all this talent, man, you can’t slip on your talent, which is why it means so much to get this award. People always talk about the Oscar, we got to stop thinking about the Oscar and celebrate our own thing, celebrate our own blackness. Quit thinking about the Oscar and that’s coming from a man - well I have an Oscar. I was nominated twice in the same year, but still quit thinking about it so much!”
Jamie then put on the voices of a number of his famous characters – including those from Any Given Sunday and Ali – as he revealed that he “always wanted” to act and make music.
He added: “I’m giving you characters, and that’s what I’ve always just wanted to do. When I was sitting at the lunch table in Texas, looking at city folk, people from Los Angeles, New York, ‘I was like, ‘Maybe one day I’ll be able to kick it with them’.
“All I ever wanted do was characters; I wanted to do music. I would throw parties at my house all the time because I wanted to get into music.”
Other winners on the night included Cynthia Erivo, who was handed the Rising Star Award, while Lena Waithe was honoured with the Industry Resistance Award.