David James Sharon Leal, Beyonce Knowles and Anika Noni Rose star in "Dreamgirls."

By John Hayes
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette NEW YORK -- Don't tell Jamie Foxx a big-budget Hollywood movie about African-Americans and starring African-Americans can't be a hit with anybody besides African-Americans. "Ray," which starred Foxx as R&B legend Ray Charles, proved the point, earning two Academy Awards (one of them for Foxx) and domestic and foreign grosses of more than $120 million.

At a Manhattan media junket promoting "Dreamgirls," a film musical adapted from the hit Broadway musical about the rise of a fictional girl group and record label, Foxx laid out the social politics clearly and succinctly. It's all about pizza.

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"It has to do with the business of black," he said. "If 'Ray' is a black film and it's successful commercially and critically, now people can take a chance on [similar films]. Because what you want your world to be is pizza. When people eat pizza, they don't say they're eating Italian food -- they ordered a pizza. So 'Dreamgirls' now is pizza. Nobody's looking at it like it's an all African-American cast. It's a great film that happens to be African-American. It's pizza."

Make that a large pizza with extra toppings. Foxx joins an ensemble cast that includes Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover, R&B star Beyonce Knowles, "American Idol" star Jennifer Hudson and others. Loosely inspired by the story behind Motown Records, Foxx plays a 1960s Detroit car dealer with dreams of selling black R&B music to the lucrative mainstream audience. It's a heavy drama, a romantic love story, a sharp comedy and a musical in which characters suddenly break into songs that advance the story line. It's a film that requires much of Foxx, who began his career as a stand-up comic, won an Oscar for his starring role in "Ray" last year and has been nominated for three Grammys for his 2005 CD, "Unpredictable."

Foxx, in fact, is unpredictable. Slouching in a chair, his blue-jeaned legs splayed under the table, he lapses into street jargon for comic effect, then suddenly, unpredictably, says something almost poignant, revealing a wisdom about the entertainment business that belies his few years at the top.

"I think this character was the most interesting [I've played]," he said, "People were saying things like, 'Tell Jamie Foxx I'm gonna slap him for what he did to Eddie and Beyonce.' It was like, wow! Even Oprah said, 'I don't like when you're mean.' I said, 'Oprah, that's not really me, you know that.'"

In dramatic moments, Foxx gives his character a cold, pragmatic streak that makes no allowances for the feelings of colleagues he's worked with for years. The decisions enable his fledgling R&B record label to market black artists to millions of white Americans, but alienate the people closest to him.

Even Motown legend Diana Ross has complained about the character's likeness to her former lover, mentor and Motown founder Berry Gordy, but Foxx says the character isn't him.

"It's not Berry Gordy," he says. "This is what people don't know about Berry Gordy. When he started Motown, there was something endearing about him. That's why he was successful. There's no way he could have been mean the whole time. He did something nobody does nowadays -- he taught the acts how to be eloquent. They weren't going to be able to get their black music into the white world unless these guys went out and sang a certain way, and when they were interviewed [present themselves] in a certain way. So they had etiquette class. When you look at all the stars that came out of [Motown] -- Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye -- that's a lot of people that Berry Gordy really helped."

Foxx says his heartless character has more in common with the heartless characters he encountered when he was making "Unpredictable."

"The character that I'm playing is a mix between the music guys that I've met in the past three years," he said. "They talked to me so crazy when I went to do my record. This one guy told me, 'I don't give a damn if you sell one record or a million, my paycheck stays the same.' I said, 'I thought I was on your team. Look, I got a day job -- whenever you guys get your mind together, we'll talk.' But they never got together because that's what they really were. So I took those elements and put it into this role."

Foxx says the best thing about working on "Dreamgirls" was the ensemble nature of the cast. Relieved of the pressures of being in nearly every frame, as he was on "Ray," Foxx could sit back and watch the others work.

"It's a big ensemble cast, so I got to watch Jennifer and Beyonce and Eddie get theirs," he said. "That's why I think I had so much more fun on the set. Eddie Murphy is the shniznit -- he's one of the reasons I wanted to do the movie. I mean, almost 30 years he's been on top. He took comedy to another level, made it sexy, made it rock 'n' roll wearing the leather and diamonds and the whole thing. When you do something like 'Dreamgirls,' you know this is gonna be in a time capsule. It's gonna be something to look back and marvel at, you hope that everybody who's connected with it gets a chance to celebrate."

Black R&B performers from the 1960s, similar to those fictionalized in "Dreamgirls," opened doors for contemporary performers. Speaking to a reporters' roundtable, Beyonce Knowles said she owns a debt of gratitude to those who came before her.

"Being in a singing group that has crossed over and been international and able to sell out venues," she said, "if it wasn't for The Supremes and Martha and the Vandellas and the other groups, we would not even be able to perform at these venues."

At 25, Knowles has already been a top star for a decade. Slipping into the roundtable interview in casual jeans, she sits bolt upright, answers questions in a firm, decisive tone, but curiously fails to look reporters in the eye, even the two she's sitting next to. She looks past them, as if they're minor bumps on a long road stretched out before her.

Despite her youth, she sees "Dreamgirls" in perspective.

"Like the one scene where we're the first black artists to perform there and they're saying racial jokes," she said. "That felt real. I have such an appreciation for all the people who came before us who had to go through that, because now we don't have to."

Knowles believes "Dreamgirls," if it's as successful as she thinks it will be, will open further doors for African-American entertainers.

"I wanted to be part of something relevant and something classic," she said. "I think this is great for our history. I hope this will be hugely successful and [black performers] will get more opportunities to do big productions like this, Hopefully it will be something that keeps happening."

Arriving as the antithesis of Knowles' distant star quality, Jennifer Hudson entered the interview radiating an optimistic Everywoman appreciation of her newfound fame. A losing "American Idol" contestant who beat winner Fantasia Barrino for the "Dreamgirls" role of Effie, Hudson said the film could also open doors for plus-size entertainers such as herself.

"I almost didn't make it into singing groups," she said. "They were a size 0, I was a size 12-14. But once I got in, I had to do the singing because they couldn't. I hope 'Dreamgirls' can help to change that, that people will see that it should be about the music and talent, not the image."

Jamie Foxx says he enjoyed the ensemble nature of the cast of "Dreamgirls," which opens on Christmas Day.