'He's such a light': John Boyega, Teyonah Parris celebrate Jamie Foxx as actor recovers from health scare
Foxx's "They Cloned Tyrone" co-stars and director share experiences working with him amid new report that Oscar winner "is still not himself."
As Jamie Foxx continues to recover from a scary health crisis, the director and stars of his next movie, Netflix’s sci-fi comedy They Cloned Tyrone, are singing the praises of the beloved Oscar-winning actor and Grammy-winning musician.
“He’s such a light, and so much fun,” Teyonah Parris told Yahoo this week during an interview where she was joined by costar John Boyega and director and co-writer Juel Taylor.
In April, the 55-year-old star of Ray and Django Unchained was hospitalized for an unspecified serious medical complication while he was filming the Netflix comedy Back in Action with Cameron Diaz. With rumors about his condition swirling around the internet, the actor’s daughter Corinne Foxx stated in May that her father had been "out of the hospital for weeks, recuperating." He was transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Chicago that specializes in strokes and brain injuries. Earlier in June, his publicist, who has largely declined to comment on the actor’s health, issued a terse statement shooting down claims Foxx suffered a stroke after getting a COVID vaccine.
“He is getting the best care and working hard to recover right now, but he is still not himself," an unnamed source close to the actor told People in a story published earlier Wednesday.
Following the release of last week’s action-comedy God Is a Bullet, Tyrone (premiering on Netflix July 21) will mark the second of three films this summer starring Foxx, with the R-rated talking-dog comedy Strays set for theatrical release in August.
The Blaxploitation-inspired Tyrone features Foxx, Boyega and Parris as intentionally stereotypical archetypes — a pimp, drug dealer and prostitute, respectively — as they uncover a nefarious government conspiracy targeting their community.
“When you have a giant like Jamie come into a space, inevitably everyone looks to them,” says Parris (WandaVision, Candyman). “What’s the tone going to be? How are they going to carry themselves? From the jump, he was just very open and fun and charming and professional. And so that set the tone immediately for what kind of vibe we were going to have. He came in always playing music and was just very open to ideas and discussions.”
“It was a great experience working with him,” adds Boyega (Star Wars, The Woman King). “I think he was just open, loose and free, especially when it came to the actual scenes. He would improv. He would kind of spice it up. [There’s] an expansion of imagination when you’re working with Jamie Foxx. He’s just so quick-witted, it gives you an opportunity to be like, OK, ‘I need to step on my game too, man.’ It's just a good vibe all around.”
Taylor, who co-wrote Creed II and makes his feature directorial debut with Tyrone, describes Foxx as the production’s uncle.
“He’s very empathic, like he can feel like the vibe on the set,” he says. “I always think back to a rough day. … He sensed the morale of the crew, the talent, even the [extras]. We was having a hard day on set. And [then] you hear all this laughing in the parking lot and it’s like Jamie doing a standup show in the parking lot. True story. It was for all the [extras], some of these people were just coming off the street. It was just him being like emotionally intuitive, you know what I'm saying? Understanding it’s tense on the set right now. And we need some levity.
“I mean, he’s an Oscar winner. We already know what he can do on the dramatic side, on the comedic side. But what I didn’t know, not having not known him until this process, was how intuitive he was to the ebbs and flows of sets and really helping [people] have a good set experience beyond just giving you what you need on the screen.”
They Cloned Tyrone premieres July 21 on Netflix.
Watch the trailer:
