Jamie Foxx is ready to discuss his recent health scare — but wants to do it “in a funny way.”
The “Django Unchained” star delivered an affable speech Sunday about his lengthy hospitalization last year and, while accepting the Producers Award at the African American Film Critics Association luncheon, teased a return to his stand-up comedy roots.
“Everybody wants to know what happened, and I’m going to tell you what happened,” said Foxx, per Variety. “But I’ve gotta do it in my way. I’m gonna do it in a funny way. We’re gonna be on the stage. We’re gonna get back to the stand-up sort of roots.”
“It’ll be called, ‘What Had Happened Was,’ and it’s got all the things that happened, especially on our side of our community,” he continued, before sharing an example. “I dove out of a car to save this Black woman’s purse. ‘That ain’t no damn Jamie, that’s a clone.’”
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He recently teased his stand-up return on Instagram: “I got some jokes, and a story to tell.”
Foxx was hospitalized for an entire month last April for what his daughter Corinne described at the time was a “medical complication.” Social media was flooded with conspiracy theories that Foxx had been cloned and acting like it after his discharge.
The fact that his Netflix film “They Cloned Tyrone” premiered in June certainly didn’t help.
Foxx himself previously touched on the rampant speculation and joked in December: “I know a lot of people been saying I was cloned out there. Boy, ya’ll ain’t shit.” While his exact medical diagnosis remains private, Foxx was just “thankful” to be here Sunday.
“Because it was really … it’s beyond the scope,” he said at the luncheon. “Cherish life. I have some people in my life that really made sure I was here because it was dire straits. I was drinking some water, like, ‘Wow, you taste this water? It’s so wet. This is the wettest water.’”
Foxx jokingly added that his daughter scolded him: “Dad, you’ve gotta chill out.”
The actor received his Special Achievement award Sunday for producing “They Cloned Tyrone” and Amazon’s “The Burial” with his Foxxhole Productions company. On Monday, it was announced that Foxx and his daughter are returning to host Fox’s “Beat Shazam.”
While it’s unclear just when he’ll get back onstage to crack jokes, the Oscar and Grammy winner certainly has a newfound appreciation for life — and said Sunday that “you just don’t know” what tomorrow will bring.
