Jaime Foxx was enjoying his success in 2005 — a lot. Too much. So much that he got a call from Oprah Winfrey who told him he was blowing it and — that he was on the verge of losing what he’d worked so hard for. Oprah being Oprah, she took him to none other than Quincy Jones‘ house where a lot of actors — many of them older black actors — had assembled for a kind of Jamie Foxx intervention. The main man, as it were, at the gathering was the great and masterful actor Sidney Poitier. Poitier was not just a great actor, but one of the country’s most respected citizens. It also happened to be his birthday.
Dressed in his tuxedo and wearing his inner elegance too, Poitier told Foxx that Foxx’s talent had made even Poitier himself stand taller. The venerable star then said he wanted to give Foxx something: “I want to give you responsibility,” he said. It was a life-altering conversation for Foxx. Foxx is the host of the new game show Shazam on CBS.
