The Real Reason We Don't Hear From Jamie Foxx Anymore

Jamie Foxx is one of Hollywood's biggest and most celebrated stars. His choices in the entertainment industry have been so varied that it's almost maddening how successful he's been in basically everything he's tried. 

Born Eric Bishop, the man burst into the public consciousness as a stand-up comedian and sketch performer on Fox's In Living Color, but he's also a talented dramatic performer, winning a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of R&B legend Ray Charles in Ray in 2005. That same year, he also received a best supporting actor nomination for Collateral. When not starring in everything from action movies (White House Down) to Quentin Tarantino flicks (Django Unchained) to family films (Annie), Foxx has enjoyed a successful music career with hit singles like "Blame It" and multiple collaborations with Kanye West. 

But in recent years, this A-lister has disappeared from Hollywood's radar. Why? True to form, he's got his hands full with lots of endeavors. Check it out.

Foxx isn't the type of man to kiss and tell. He's been very quiet over the years when it comes to matters of the heart, but, while you may not have heard it from his mouth, he's been romantically linked to actress Katie Holmes for years. 

The pair reportedly became more than friends in 2013, reported E! News. They were spotted together at the fourth annual Apollo in the Hamptons charity event, where they danced the night away, but they have rarely been photographed together since. Foxx has even denied dating Holmes on a number of occasions. "Oh come on, you guys have been trying to get that to stick for three years," he quipped to E! News in 2015, insisting they were "just friends." 

However, subtle details have emerged that suggest their love is the real deal. The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Claudia Jordan slipped up and seemed to confirm a relationship between Holmes and her friend, Foxx, before backpedaling and claiming she "misspoke," reported Entertainment Tonight.

There could be an interesting reason why Foxx refuses to let the public dig into his private life. "I like to stay quiet, you know, with anyone that I'm dating; that I'm really, really dating," he told Entertainment Tonight. "If there's somebody that you're dating, the worst thing you can do is let that [points at camera] touch you. Because once that camera touches you ... You have to make sure it's real. We don't take time do that anymore."

At one point, Holmes and Foxx sparked engagement and marriage rumors after they were photographed separately wearing bands on their ring fingers. There were even reports that the pair spent a romantic holiday together in November 2016 to celebrate Holmes' birthday, reported Us Weekly. Only time will tell if these two alleged lovebirds will ever come out of hiding.

Like anyone, Jamie Foxx can suffer from a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease. Such was the case in early 2016 as the #OscarsSoWhite diversity discussion began to take shape. Foxx, who won his Academy Award in 2005, had little to say on the matter, but what he did say ignited controversy. 

"All these Oscar talks, I don't even trip about that," he joked at the American Black Film Festival Awards (via Us Weekly). "I mean, what's the big deal? I was sitting at home with my Oscar, like 'What's all the hubbub?'" The comment reeked of privilege, but it got worse: "My friend said, 'Are you mad?' 'Um, kind of, but not really,'" Foxx said. "I started calling Denzel [Washington], and we just Instagrammed our Oscars together." Foxx concluded by saying that acting is about the art, not the awards. 

While Foxx is certainly entitled to his own opinion, many felt his remarks were insensitive, considering only a handful of minorities, of any shade, have even earned nominations, much less captured Oscar gold. Foxx never apologized for his comments, but it's likely he lost a few friends in the matter — especially among those vocalizing their disgust for the lack of diversity.

In May 2015, Foxx put his Grammy-winning voice to good use by performing the national anthem at the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight. His vocals earned applause, but it didn't sit well with some viewers at home. Foxx was slammed for being too extra with the patriotic classic.

Days later, after the criticism died down a bit, Foxx told Entertainment Tonight his off performance was due to a number of factors — mainly technical issues. "We crafted this great thing with the organ and everything," he said. "That night [my in-ear] pack falls off just before I'm supposed to sing." He claims the immediate reaction was positive, saying, "I ... saw Denzel Washington [and] he was like, 'That was amazing.' Jim Gray was like, 'You nailed it, it was the best.' Then when we looked on the Internet or somebody told me about the Internet [and] they said, 'Oh people are really clowning you.'"

"I didn't think I committed a sin against America," Foxx said. "I wanted that to be the best moment and, unfortunately, it didn't go 100 percent like we wanted but we'll get another crack at it."

Music has always been a passion for Foxx. "When I sit down there [at the piano to write] I'm really at home," he told E! News in 2015. He said his music comes from a place deep inside and is inspired by love. "That's universal, when you look at what music is about, what you want to say to a person that you're in love with, you know." 

In his career, he's put out five albums and garnered significant chart success with two singles — not including his features on other artists' work — "Unpredictable" (2006), which reached No. 8 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and "Blame It" (2009), which reached No. 2 on the same chart. But his 2015 album, Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses, didn't fair so well commercially. Sure, in its first week it landed atop the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, selling 31,000 copies, but it didn't stay there long. After the critical disappointment of that project, perhaps Foxx is taking a step back to recalculate his music career.

A TV series Foxx worked on in 2017 might have given the star his most unlikely resume bullet points yet: game show producer and game show host. Along with a team of other executive producers that includes Mark Burnett (The Voice, Survivor), Foxx helped bring a hip, cool, technology-based version of the classic game show Name That Tune back to television. Beat Shazam asked contestants to quickly identify current and recent pop songs — and to answer faster than the powerful song-identifying artificial intelligence that powers Shazam, the popular smartphone app you can use to find out the name of that fun song playing in Old Navy. 

Not only did Foxx serve as an executive producer of this breezy addition to Fox's schedule, but he hosted, too. Audiences enjoyed Foxx in this new role so much that Fox ordered a second season of Beat Shazam before it finished running the first season. Season featured Jamie with his daughter, Corinne Foxx, as the resident on-stage DJ.

While Foxx had been quiet for a couple of years, he took some baby steps back into the movie business in 2017. He starred in a quietly-released kidnapping drama called Sleepless. Unloaded to theaters in January — a month notorious for dumping bad movies — the film grossed a just-okay $20 million, and critics didn't care for it. According to Michael Nordine of the Village Voice, stars Michelle Monaghan and Foxx "for all their gifts, can't transcend the material, though they do get more out of it than most others would be able to."

Foxx's other big release of the year made a much bigger and more positive impact. He played a wildly unpredictable criminal named Bats in Edgar Wright's bank heist action comedy Baby Driver, a critical smash. It has a 93 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and broke $100 million at the box office. 

In 2017, Foxx also filmed his role in a star-studded adaptation of Robin Hood. Sure, the entertainment industry has made Robin Hood movies before, but this is the first time it's made one with Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) as the title character and Jamie Foxx as Little John.