[This story contains spoilers from Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was…]
Jamie Foxx is lastly sharing particulars of his six month disappearance from the highlight attributable to a well being emergency again in April 2023. At the time, Foxx was hospitalized for an undisclosed medical complication, with few particulars shared since to clarify what occurred to the Oscar-winning actor.
Though titled Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… on Netflix and labeled a comedy particular, Foxx’s reveal is greater than its billing. (He even picked up an early 2025 Golden Globe nomination for the particular.) Through a combination of laughter, music and sobering fact, Foxx explains what occurred to him to one of the best of his recollection, getting candid about his rehab and restoration course of. For the particular he returned to Atlanta, which is the place he all of a sudden fell ailing whereas filming the Netflix comedy Back in Action additionally starring Cameron Diaz. Atlanta, he reveals, can also be the place he began doing comedy again in 1991. So he’s very a lot getting again to fundamentals, classifying how he snatched his life again from dying as a “come-back-to-God” second.
The particular begins with movies of followers speculating about Foxx’s sickness. His daughter Corinne Foxx then takes the stage to thank the viewers for coming. “This is a particular second for me and my household. It is a blessing to even be right here,” she says, earlier than introducing her dad with a rousing, “Give it up for my dad, the actual Jamie Motherfucking Foxx.” The curtain rises and there’s Foxx with shades on and fingers in coronary heart emojis over his chest expressing his love for the group.
Foxx walks out with a fist raised and the viewers frantically cheers his return. It’s so emotional, he wipes away tears. “You do not know how good this feels,” he says as he basks within the second, shouting “Atlanta, I’m again” and dancing between tears. “I used to be preventing for my life, however I’m right here in entrance of you.” When he says, “Atlanta, saved my life,” the group responds to his “God is nice” and “on a regular basis.” The trade is a recognition of his Black, Southern roots and that he’s proper at dwelling.
“The web tried to kill me, although,” he continues, within the second that may go on to spawn headlines in regards to the particular round Foxx and Sean “Diddy” Combs. “They stated I used to be paralyzed. They stated I couldn’t stroll. Well, have a look at me now,” he says, as he dances to Unk’s “Walk it Out.” He then refers back to the unsubstantiated on-line rumors that Diddy was concerned in his hospitalization. “The web stated that Puffy tried to kill me, that’s what the web was saying,” he says. “I do know what you thinkin’…. did-he?” He additionally provides a reference to Diddy’s now-infamous and so-called “freak-off” events: “I left them events early… I used to be out by 9.”
Foxx quickly modifications to a extra severe tone as he shares that “we nonetheless don’t know what occurred to me” somewhat over six minutes into the particular. Recounting what he is aware of about what occurred to him on April 11, 2023, he turns somber, once more rising emotional as he sits all the way down to say, “What had occurred was…” and explains the way it all started with him having a really dangerous headache.
“I don’t keep in mind 20 days,” he says. His retelling is relatable in that the primary physician dismissed his sickness. But his sister, Deidra Dixon, knew he was not himself and drove him round in search of hospitals till she determined to cease at Atlanta’s Piedmont Hospital.
There, a physician sporting a L.A. Lakers jersey let her know that her huge brother was having a “mind bleed” that led to a stroke and that he wanted quick surgical procedure. Needless to say, the comedy pauses right here. But it’s Jamie Foxx so, as he talks of his sister saving his life, he says “generally it’s a must to snort to maintain from crying” and he does simply that as he alludes to dying and coming again. (He makes one other Diddy joke, saying the satan “or maybe Puffy” was ready for him on the finish of the tunnel.)
What he describes is harrowing. The physician instructed his sister that he might make a full restoration from the stroke, however it’s going to be the “worst yr of his life.” He says that’s why he disappeared from public view, and credit his household for shielding him throughout his restoration. On May 4, he awoke and located himself in a wheelchair and had no thought why.
Accepting his situation wasn’t simple, as he admits to initially letting his ego get in the way in which of his restoration, which was substantial, throughout his keep in Chicago. “That’s outdated man stuff,” he says of studying how dire his situation was. He depicts the exhausting street forward, whereas at first joking about wanting to maintain his “pickle” non-public from his feminine nurse earlier than discovering out she had already been bathing him for a month and a half, and crediting a superwoman named Holly for teaching him, Karate Kid-style, to seek out his will to battle.
Eventually he noticed a psychiatrist, which led him to deep conversations with God. In that trade, he admits it took a minute to regulate his angle and battle again. To achieve this, he took the one route he knew find out how to get effectively, and that’s humor.
“If I can keep humorous, I can keep alive” grew to become his mantra.
Leaning into his humor, he impersonates Denzel Washington, Dave Chappelle, Mike Tyson, Jay-Z and even President-elect Donald Trump. It’s a novel mix of popular culture, outdated and new, to ship a private testimony of illness and therapeutic.
Looking again, he says of his vitals that they feared he would die within the first 15 days. He credit his turnaround to his teenage daughter Anelise sneaking into his hospital room and enjoying her guitar, and he or she then takes the stage to play her guitar to the viewers’s delight and father’s cheering. Foxx shares his private testimony in a talking track, magnifying the facility and style of God throughout his sickness.
Resuming the humor portion of his present, he recounts some post-recovery encounters with rapper T.I. and Halle Berry, and goes by way of his memorable roles from Any Given Sunday, Ali, Ray, Django and even Rio earlier than launching into his personal hit songs as a singer. For his finale, he returns to the piano to share a tailored testimony about his “second probability,” together with Foxx having to debunk rumors that he was “cloned” when noticed throughout his restoration, earlier than returning to a spirit of gratitude.
That spirit of thanks dominates within the Netflix particular. Billing this as a “comedy particular” doesn’t appear fairly proper for the present, which is extra akin to LeBron James The Decision, when he left Cleveland for Miami, solely extra entertaining. While it’s uncooked and at instances uneven, there’s nice potential for a one-man present, maybe on Broadway, ought to Foxx ever need to revisit this tough and maybe defining second. For now, nevertheless, this particular gives perception that no daytime TV or late evening discuss present rounds ever may.
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Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was… is now streaming on Netflix.
