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Tavis: Pleased to welcome Jamie Foxx back to this program. The Oscar-winning actor - sound good, don't it?

Jamie Foxx: Now, now, no doubt. (Laugh) I say that in front of everything. I was playing in a celebrity game and they said, 'Jamie.' I said, 'No, no, Oscar. Yes.'

Tavis: The Oscar-winning actor, of course, stars in what promises to be one of the year's biggest and critical commercial successes in film, 'Dreamgirls.' Heard about it? The movie opened to great reviews in New York and L.A. with many more theaters on the way. Here now, a scene from 'Dreamgirls.'

Foxx: Stone-cold fox.

Tavis: You get - cold fox.

Foxx: That was back in the day when it was old school. (Laugh) That girl today wanna cuss someone, you ain't nothing, you jive. (Laugh) You jive. When you got called a turkey, that was like getting called (unintelligible). Jive turkey. Hey, man.

Tavis: (Laugh) Did you write that line? I like the way that fox just got pushed up in there. You got a writing credit here, too?

Foxx: No, I don't know, I think I got a little creative, and that was a little ad-lib. Get a chance to, I don't know. (Laugh)

Tavis: How you doing, man?

Foxx: I'm good.

Tavis: Good to see you, man.

Foxx: Good to see you.

Tavis: I was just thinking, man, Ms. Estelle?

Foxx: Oh man, (unintelligible).

Tavis: Must be proud of you.

Foxx: Just incredible, man, to still see the wave of what's going on. Sometimes you feel a little cliché when you keep crediting your grandmother, but it just feels so right to do that. And it's just amazing to see it unfolding the way it is. And then I have this blessing of a movie, to go from Ray Charles, which I think is very significant in the success of Ray Charles in making 'Dreamgirls' a possibly. So it's just great, man.

Tavis: What has happened - let me ask you an impossible question, I admit. Why am I asking it? I don't know, 'cause I want his answer. (Laugh) What has happened, 'cause your grandmother passed; Ms. Estelle passed since you were last on this set. What has happened since that time that you wish most that she could have seen? What's happened since then?

Foxx: Oh, it's just everything. It was amazing, we did the 'American Music Awards,' and my biological mother shows up at the awards. Now, I haven't seen my biological mother in, like, eight, nine years, and she just shows up. And it was just like oh, man, and it was so much emotions. And then we sung the song dedicated to my grandmother, and also dedicated to Gerald Levert who passed away.

And we sung 'I Wish You Were Here.' And everybody, when you look out in the audience, everybody got so caught up in the energy of that. And you just wish that she could have been there to see that, because my mother was there, my sister, my two sisters, my whole family. And to see, like, the people in the audience getting caught up with it.

Keisha Coles, Mary J. Blige, the Pussycat Dolls, everybody was caught up in that moment. So it's just been beautiful, Jewel's (unintelligible). But you know when you growing up, man, you go to church and you believe and everything like that. Young Baptist church. But sometimes you have your doubts. I don't know, is it really real? And it's not until things like that happen where energy is taken away and given to you where you go, like, man, you hope with everything that you do get a chance to see that person that you love so much again.

Tavis: Now you know you said something I gotta go back and get. What's it like when you ain't seen your mama in eight or nine years, and she just shows up?

Foxx: Just shows up, and you know what it is, I would send a ticket to her every holiday. And we didn't have a relationship that you could really, like, say that it was a father-son thing. It was more like here's a lady who I know was very important in the process of me getting here, but we didn't have that. So it was a little strange. It was a little different. And my mother still, she's high-faluting.

She's a Capricorn, a crazy Capricorn. (Laugh) December thirty-first. And so it's gonna take a little time, because things have gone so fast and so far, she thinks, from her. So I just keep breaking it down. I say, 'Any time you wanna come through, the door's wide open.'

Tavis: You just started to answer this question with that last comment. Let me just ask question and I'll move off of this, 'cause it's such a personal thing, and I thank you for indulging me on this. But how do you craft a relationship with the woman, to your point, responsible for bringing you into the world when she enters your life in this way at this point. And everybody knows the story of your grandmother. You talk about it, to your point, everywhere you go. How do you find the space to craft a meaningful relationship now?

Foxx: What you try to do is that you try to, like, when you hear other people going through things in their relationship and you say, 'Well, why can't they just get it together?' What you try to do is leave the door open. And it's tough. And I think the tough part of it is is that I'm a cactus. I'm not a rose or a lily type person. I don't need much, just a little water here and there, and I'm okay.

But I think what happens is when you're a parent, you're afraid of your child if you feel that maybe you didn't do the right thing. What I try to alleviate is the fear. Like, even to my biological father. I alleviate the fear. Look, if you wanna come hang and kick it, or whatever like that, let's do it. Let's not waste this time. So it's really on them. Like, my fear is, like, with my daughter.

In raising her, if Daddy's not home enough, or if Daddy's not around in those important times, you feel like oh, man, I'm messing up. So what I do is I take those times out and I make sure that my daughter is part of my life so she doesn't feel like she's on the outside, just way out somewhere. I sign an autograph; she signs an autograph. Just to make them feel like they're part of you, because that's what you're supposed to do. Now, having a biological mother who wasn't there, that's all it is, is just trying to eliminate little bits of those fears.

Tavis: See, I'm cracking up. Every time - we've known each other for years, of course. But every time we talk, I'm always listening to what you're saying, but I'm listening and I'm feeling it at the same time. And I never get away from this thought, which I've never asked you. Have you ever felt, did you ever feel the pressure to show how insightful you are? People see you now, they see your intellect.

They see your brilliance. They see your heart. They know that you are not just - I'm not dogging actors. You're not just an actor. There's somebody inside there who's very, very bright. When you plan a character like Wanda, or some of the other stuff you've done, did you ever feel the need to say, 'Hey, (unintelligible).'

Foxx: Hey, (unintelligible). (Laugh) Only, but you know what? Here's what you do, is that you take those moments and you service those moments. When we doing Wanda or when we doing Crazy Joe, or when we doing (unintelligible), you can go right into those characters, and you stay in those. And then it makes it, it makes it fresh that - I was on stage at the Improv just a couple nights ago.

Tavis: Did you use the N-word?

Foxx: Yeah, I used the N-word. That's one of my favorite words. (Laugh) I can't even do certain things without using that word, 'cause it helps me (unintelligible)...

Tavis: I just hate saying the N-word.

Foxx: Yeah, 'cause I like it.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)

Foxx: It just depends if you put the E-R on it. See, that's what dude did. He put the E-R on it.

Tavis: He put the E-R on it.

Foxx: You gotta put the A-H, and then maybe you might not get slapped.

Tavis: Okay. (Laugh)

Foxx: But I was on stage, and people was like, 'Wow, here's all of these different things that you've done,' and it humbles me. And what it does do, it keeps things in sections. When I come to Tavis Smiley, I know there's certain things that I'm gonna talk about to keep things elevated. But when I'm in the Improv, in the club, we can let it all hang out and have a good time. So I think it helps to have that diversity.

Tavis: What's the value these days - there's so much to talk to you about, we'll get all of it. I see the studio executive over there, real nervous. Is he gonna get to 'Dreamgirls?' I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming.

Foxx: Come on, Tavis, come on.

Tavis: (Laugh) We gotta move some tickets here.

Foxx: This is crazy.

Tavis: I'm gonna get back to that.

Foxx: It's crazy.

Tavis: (Laugh) What's the value...

Foxx: N-word. NO, I'm just kidding.

Tavis: What's the value at this point of you going on stage? You don't have to do that. Your money's tight.

Foxx: Yeah. I think the money's tight. (unintelligible) check on that. (Laugh) Anytime you say that, you just, (unintelligible).

Tavis: You start thinking yeah, I better check. Yeah.

Foxx: Hammer. Wesley Snipes.

Tavis: Hammer. (Laugh)

Foxx: (unintelligible) pay my taxes. (Laugh) Is that what this is about? Some taxes? (Laugh) Wesley's was trying to get off paying taxes.

Tavis: For, like, five or six years, yeah.

Foxx: I called Wesley I said, 'Where are you?' 'I'm on the run, G. (Laugh) They say I didn't pay my taxes. Yeah, I'm gonna talk to my accountant. I know my accountant. I know my accountant knows something.' (Laugh) Living - Ron Isley is in - went to jail for the taxes.

Tavis: I know, it's crazy.

Foxx: (singing) That's what (unintelligible). Just to see Ron Isley in jail, in the shower, is crazy.

Tavis: So you are paying your taxes. Let me just back up.

Foxx: I'm paying my taxes, 'cause I don't...

Tavis: Forget that question. You are paying your taxes.

Foxx: I gotta pay my taxes. Number one, I tell you, they take some out. Uncle Sam is not playing. And who is FICA? FICA? FICA is up (unintelligible). (Laugh) I'm like man, what is going? Them poor Isley Brothers, I can't, that's, mm.

Tavis: All right, so you're paying your taxes.

Foxx: Paying my taxes.

Tavis: All right. So back to the question I had asked. We was talking about...

Foxx: Why do you go on stage? The reason I go on...

Tavis: See? You remembered that.

Foxx: The reason I go on stage is because I don't want people to ever forget that I'm a comedian, for one. I did a joke about Oprah at a function, and people oh, oh my God, Oprah. But you know, I'm a comic. And not only that, but I have a relationship with Oprah and Gail in the sense of a friendship.

Tavis: I was gonna say, explain that?

Foxx: (unintelligible)

Tavis: Oprah and Gail, playa? Golly, (unintelligible).

Foxx: Now you gonna get me in trouble. (Laugh) No, but the joke was hilarious. And what I wanted people to understand is that for one, we do have a great relationship as friends. And let's not lose that. Let's not lose that funny side of me, and let's go back on stage and just keep people, remind them that this is where I started. Like, on my show, I'm gonna start out with comedy, because that's where I started out.

Tavis: It's a 36-city tour.

Foxx: Yeah.

Tavis: Right.

Foxx: People know me as Wanda, all the different characters that I did in stand-up. And then it'll be a break and saying, 'Now fellas, you can stay if you want to, but this is for the ladies.' Now we change gears, you know what I'm saying? Girl, get comfortable. (Laugh) About to do. And that's gonna make all of what you're doing to take that, now it's a circus. You're bringing it to their city and you're letting people see that you haven't forgot that, and you still wanna get up there.

'Cause I don't wanna end up somewhere behind some walls, and behind the big shades, and you gotta talk through people. Tell Tavis I wanna answer my questions through you. (Laugh) You don't wanna do that type thing. So I just stay out there.

Tavis: So how you gonna act when you wake up one morning and you've got an Oscar on your show, and a Grammy on your show?

Foxx: Wow. That would be incredible. And the reason being is because, like, the music was really what I came here to do. I really came out here, 21 years ago now, I just turned 39. So I came out here almost 21 years ago to do music. And it didn't work out quite the way I wanted to. But what I did was I got into stand-up, got into acting. But I always kept the music alive. And then fortunate events happened. Obviously meeting Kanye West, who I still thank him for allowing me to be on his record to kind of bring me back into the game.

Tavis: That thing was huge, though.

Foxx: Yeah, it was huge. And then Ray Charles...

Tavis: (unintelligible) he's a gold digger.

Foxx: Yeah. And how dope is that? That's a real, 'cause we never called him a gold digger. I ain't saying you a gold digger, but you do not mess with nobody (unintelligible) broke, brokity-broke.

Tavis: Yeah. (Laugh)

Foxx: So, just to have that, man, the three nominations of the Grammys really means a lot, because that's what I came out here to do.

Tavis: 'Dreamgirls.' Can we talk about it?

Foxx: We sure can.

Tavis: We'd better talk about it. Curtis Taylor Junior.

Foxx: Yeah, man.

Tavis: Hit me.

Foxx: Yeah, Curtis Taylor Jr., he's a very tough guy. And people ask about the reason for taking this role, and the reason is because I wanted to play a role where it wasn't so shiny. I didn't wanna play the person that was out in the front. Curtis was, like, the real business, the real record business, real tough. I was kind of tough on Eddie in the movie. (Laugh) In this scene, I'm very tough on Jennifer Hudson.

And you got people in the audience, I'm gonna slap the hell outta Jamie Foxx when I see him. (Laugh) But it's a necessary movie, and Jennifer Hudson absolutely knocks your wig off with her performance. Beyonce Knowles knocks your wig off. Eddie Murphy's back, Bill Condon does a great job. Anika Noni Rose, Keith Robinson. This movie is absolutely incredible.

And not only that, but it gets a standing ovation within the movie. When we screened it in New York, Jennifer Hudson gets a standing ovation in the movie. And I don't think that's ever happened. I don't know if anybody's ever heard of getting a standing ovation in the movie. Incredible.

Tavis: So we were debating, before you came out, somebody said, 'Ask Jamie that question.' I said, 'That'd be real impolitic. That'd be a major embarrassment to ask him that live on TV.' So here it goes. (Laugh) And if you know how to answer this question right, then you'll give me the right answer.

Foxx: Okay.

Tavis: Whose version would you take? JH's version, or JH's version?

Foxx: Ah. Who's the best at it?

Tavis: You feel me on this, right?

Foxx: Yeah. I think what has to happen is Dr. J-Michael Jordan.

Tavis: Ooh.

Foxx: Because Dr. J, you can take nothing from Dr. J, but you had to give Michael Jordan his due. Because it's, what it is is that it's hard to perfect perfection. So when you step into somebody else's shoes and then you elevate it - and I'm gonna tell you how she elevates it.

Tavis: Before you tell me how she elevates it, for those who are watching who didn't figure that out, the song, 'And I'm Telling You,' Jennifer Holliday broke it off in 'Dreamgirls' on Broadway. Jennifer Hudson - ain't that amazing? JH and JH?

Foxx: Yeah, it's crazy, how that parallels.

Tavis: Jennifer Holliday, Jennifer Hudson. So I was asking Jamie whose version he liked, and you were about to say?

Foxx: You gotta say this. You gotta say Dr. J-Michael Jordan.

Tavis: Right.

Foxx: You can take nothing from Dr. J. You can take nothing from Jennifer Holliday. Because that song scared the hell out of everybody that was doing this movie. Because, like, if you don't get that song right, I'm over there, like, I'm in the corner, like, (laugh) please get. 'Cause if you don't, it's gonna be (unintelligible). Now, the thing is cinema. Cinema changes the game.

If Dr. J had come along during the Michael Jordan era, it would be completely different. Because there was more cinema. There was more cameras. So with taking nothing from Jennifer Hudson's performance, you also have cinema, which you set it now in this big, broad, beautiful thing. So now you can't judge it. You have to lock it off in different sections.

Tavis: So in other words, there were some moves that J made that the camera just didn't pick up back in the day.

Foxx: Well, because it was musical theater. And we only heard the song, we didn't see the visual. Not everybody got a chance to go see the play, which from hearing from people, it was absolutely incredible.

Tavis: That won't be a problem with the movie, though. Everybody's gonna see this.

Foxx: It won't be a problem. Everybody's gonna go see it, and so you can't take anything from either one of them. Because I have to say that you'll never be able to get past the Jennifer Holliday version, but that Jennifer Hudson has done her own thing.

Tavis: You said you did this because you wanted to work with Eddie.

Foxx: Yeah, of course.

Tavis: And who wouldn't? So you are... (Laugh)

Foxx: Just to hear Eddie come out and say, 'Ladies, ladies, what can I do for you? Ladies, this is just great. I'm on my knees, ladies, can't you see it?' It's just great. I was actually sitting on the step just looking at Eddie like, look at, that's Eddie Murphy. Look at the back of his head. Just watching everything he would do. Just incredible, man.

Tavis: So you wanted to work with Eddie. So you've got the Oscar statue on your show. And there is a lot of buzz about Eddie perhaps getting a nod. Here's this comedian extraordinaire, but he plays the heck out of this role. So much so that there's buzz on his perhaps getting an Oscar nomination.

Foxx: I'm gonna tell you what makes Eddie great in this movie. Silence. Because Eddie, in his career, we've always known him to articulate everything. He fills in the spaces. He makes you - he just blows you away. The parts in this movie when he was just silent, and you saw pain on his face, and I think you saw all types of pain. You saw pain from what he was going through in his personal life.

Because it's definitely out there. You definitely hear about, you know, his divorce and everything. So when they just lock the camera off, and he was absolutely silent, that's what made it golden. And that's what made the turn. Because you always look for people, when you start talking about Oscars or you're talking about awards, you don't look for what they do all the time.

You look for that change, when they made the corner. And I think to me, it will open up a different spectrum for Eddie Murphy. Because obviously, I was looking for the old Eddie. 'Where you been?' - we was on Oprah Winfrey show - and, 'Yeah, we love you.' This was during the commercials. 'We love you, Eddie. We glad you're back.' He went, 'Where I been?' (Laugh)

I said, 'You may not know, but we been longing for that Eddie that was dangerous, that would, you know, cuss, you know what I'm saying? That could say anything and do anything, and make it hot. And so in this, you come back to us.'

And when I say 'us,' I mean not just Black folk, but everybody that ever saw Eddie on 'Saturday Night Live' and appreciated it, or saw 'Raw' or 'Delirious.' Those things that will be left in the time capsules. I think in this movie, he turns a corner.

Tavis: I've always believed that Eddie was underrated. Always believed, never appreciated. In part that happens, as you know, though, at least, let me put it this way. The excuse that Hollywood gives for not giving him his respect as you and I see it is that he has - not unlike a lot of folk - had a string of things that didn't work. So you do stuff that doesn't work...

Foxx: It's utterly ridiculous, because for one, we're graded differently. As a Black entertainer, you have to be 100 percent all the time. You cannot be mediocre. And this was told to me by Keenan Ivory Wayans, and this was great advice. He said, 'Anything that you do, Foxx, if you don't think you can do it 100 percent, don't do it.' He said, 'Because we don't have those many chances.'

So when Eddie, who's still making money, his last movies made over 100 million, 150 million. This guy's made more money for the movie industry than probably anybody. But because it is a little bit of a different grading system, 'Oh, he's lost it. How'd he lose it?' He's just doing something different. But we have to recognize that. And we have to recognize what we do, and why we get back to the basics. That's why I go back to the basics, so I don't lose that thing that you kind of long for when you see your favorite actor or actress or comedian or singer.

Tavis: Tell me, to your point now, and I appreciate your candor about this. So you win the Oscar for 'Ray.' The next three projects didn't do what people thought they were gonna do. 'Stealth,' 'Jarhead,' 'Miami Vice.'

Foxx: And the thing is is that the 'Stealth,' wow. (Laugh)

Tavis: Sorry. Yeah. (Laugh)

Foxx: But 'Stealth' was already shot before 'Ray,' And 'Ray' wasn't done as a movie to be successful. 'Ray' was done, we should do this movie. And then all of these things happened. Now, 'Miami Vice' is just, that hurts.

Tavis: So we'll forgive you for 'Stealth.'

Foxx: Thank you.

Tavis: That was before 'Ray.' You still got, okay.

Foxx: But 'Miami Vice,' go ahead, and I'll get you $14.50 or whatever it is that you spent. (Laugh) But that one -

Tavis: But 'Jarhead,' yeah.

Foxx: No, 'Jarhead' was surprisingly a low budget movie that did, like, 33 million out the box, which was supposed to be an artistic film.

Tavis: Right.

Foxx: So that was an artistic one. But it's like you look at it like this. You look at something like 'Dreamgirls,' and it's a formula to it. Ellen Barkin told me this. She said that you do two for yourself, and one for them. And 'Miami Vice' was supposed to be this thing, and it just didn't happen. 'Cause if 'Miami Vice' would have blown up and 'Dreamgirls,' I'd have probably came in here naked. (Laugh)

Just in here naked, just holding my (unintelligible) like that's - I don't even have to wear clothes anymore, T; this is crazy. I just have to give myself to the world. (Laugh) So sometimes, you can't have it all, you know what I'm saying?

Tavis: Right, I got you.

Foxx: It's too good, because you got Grammy nominations, and then you get the, then you start to become this mofo. You ever see that?

Tavis: Yeah.

Foxx: You know what I mean?

Tavis: I know what you're talking about.

Foxx: (unintelligible) Like when you doing too much, you walking, people, this (unintelligible). (Laugh) Look at this. (unintelligible) Then they sit down, someone's smiling, they all (unintelligible) this one. So you don't wanna do that.

Tavis: But do you take it personally (laugh) when it does hit? 'Cause the thing is this. To your point, to the advice that Keenan gave you, you don't do nothing if you're not gonna give it your all.

Foxx: Yeah. I gave it my...

Tavis: So whether it hits or tanks, you gave it all.

Foxx: I gave it my all.

Tavis: You take that personally?

Foxx: And you take it personally. You have to take it personally. But when you do a movie, it's a crapshoot. 'Cause you could do something that's funny today, and then it comes out a year from now, and it's not funny. Or you could do something you think is hot, and somebody else doesn't. So it's a crapshoot. But what you do maintain is the integrity of your work.

That whenever they see you in the film, that you're doing what you're supposed to do. And that's why, like, you get lucky with something like 'Dreamgirls.' They weren't expecting 'Dreamgirls' to be this, either. But it turns out great. Movies are a crapshoot. So, and then what we do now is to try to prevent that, we create our own things, and do it our own way. And then make sure you don't slip up.

Tavis: So how big is 'Dreamgirls' gonna be? How big is it gonna be?

Foxx: That's gonna be crazy. Because like I said, all those different entities, and the Jennifer Hudson and the Eddie Murphy and Beyonce. Not enough talk about Beyonce's performance. And Beyonce's performance was very sneaky, because there is so much attention on everybody else. And when she sung it, and the fact that she's light-skinned and good-looking, they already like mm. Mm hmm.

Tavis: (unintelligible)

Foxx: (unintelligible), mm hmm. (Laugh) It was, like, wow. So that's what really makes the movie really work on all levels.

Tavis: And the tour. The music, the stand-up starts day after Christmas?

Foxx: Oh, man. Day after Christmas, and I go back at it. We'll be in San Diego, then we'll go to Sacramento, and then we'll be in Oakland for New Year's, which is like my family 'cause that's where I started out. I won a stand-up competition in 1991. So we'll do the comedy and some music. We're gonna have 'Fantasia' on the road. We're gonna have Snoop, if he's (laugh) not in the clouds. (unintelligible) I gotta tell you this about, I was telling you (unintelligible).

Tavis: Tell me right quick; go ahead.

Foxx: Me and Snoop did a song, but we had so much jolly while we were doing it that he forgot that we worked together and had (unintelligible) this album. I called and said, 'Snoop, you know we did a song.' 'What's that, nephew?' 'We did a song together.' 'Oh, let me hear it.' And I sent it to him, and he had to stop his record. 'Oh yeah, (unintelligible), that's hot right there. We gotta put that on there, you know what I'm saying?' So we put that on there, and he's gonna be out on the road with us, doing some dates and stuff. So make sure you catch it.

Tavis: Many opportunities to see Jamie Foxx the holiday season, starting with 'Dreamgirls,' and then his tour on the road in a city near you. Jamie, proud of you as always, man.

Foxx: Thanks man.

Tavis: Appreciate you.

Foxx: Thanks.

Tavis: All right. That's our show for tonight. Catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. Catch you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from L.A., thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith.