Newspaper columnist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr., left) discovers former musical prodigy turned homeless man Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx, right) on the streets of downtown Los Angeles in the drama “The Soloist.” (Photos by Francois Duhamel/Universal Studios)

Texas native Jamie Foxx was born Eric Marlon Bishop on December 13, 1967. The versatile actor/comedian/singer/musician/writer/producer/director got his start in showbiz in 1989 when he went on stage on a dare on open mic night and tried his hand at standup.

In 1996, he launched his own series, “The Jamie Foxx Show,” which was one of the top-rated programs on the WB Network during its five-year run. He made his big screen in “Toys” in 1992, followed by appearances in “Booty Call” and “Players Club” and, of course “Ray”, the film for which he collected an Oscar. Besides his work in front of the camera, Jamie has also achieved a thriving career in music.

Here, he talks about his new movie, “The Soloist”, a true story in which he plays Nathaniel Ayers, a Juilliard-trained child prodigy, who ended up homeless after developing schizophrenia. In the film, Ayers is befriended by Steve Lopez (Robert Downey, Jr.), an L.A. Times reporter who hears him playing the violin in the park.

Kam Williams: My first question is, “Did you get to meet Nathaniel Ayers on the streets in preparing to portray him?”

In “The Soloist,” Jamie Foxx portrays a former musical prodigy turned homeless man.

Jamie Fox: Yes I did. As a matter of fact, I snuck downtown with a little bit of a disguise and a security cat, and I just hung out right next to Nathaniel. He had no idea that I was watching him. I got a chance to see him speak to the world, and get excited, and be happy, and sad, and play his music. And I saw him preach. Watching that I was able to gather a lot of great information about who this guy was that I was about to play, without hearing anybody’s opinion of him, but just from my firsthand look at him. Later, I was formally introduced to him, and he was on his best behavior. He smiled because he gets it that they were going to do a movie about his life. And then you see him not get it, and wondering, “What’s going on here?” And then he’d swing back around and get it again. So, it was very interesting.

KW: How did you prepare for the role after that?

JF: It was a matter of putting him together. Losing the weight… getting the hair right… getting the makeup right… and going to that place that I have feared going to for a long time, that is, losing your mind.

KW: What made you afraid of that?

JF: As a child I always feared losing my mind. There was a guy in my neighborhood who always walked up and down the street talking to himself. I won’t say his name, but I would always go, “Ooh, that’s scary.” And then, when I was 18, I had a horrible experience when somebody slipped something into my drink. It was a college prank that really went bad, and I hallucinated for 11 months. The doctors said that sometimes people go and they never come back. I was lucky enough to get back, but the way I recovered was by playing music all the time, because I was in a music school. Isn’t it interesting that Nathaniel Anthony Ayers had a similar situation?

KW: Very.

JF: So, at one point while preparing for this movie I woke my manager at like three in the morning, saying, “I got it, I’m him, I know exactly what’s going on. Nathaniel says this, that and the other, because he feels this way and that way. I used to do the same thing when I was in college. I played music, and the reason we play music is so we can soothe ourselves. I’m him!”

KW: How did your manger respond?

JF: He goes, “Foxx, I’m on the way over to your house, because this is a little strange.” And when he gets there, I’m telling him all these different things which to him sounded like I was losing my mind. But to me, it made perfect sense, and that’s who Nathaniel Anthony Ayers is. Everything that he’s doing makes perfect sense to him. That’s why when Steve Lopez says, “You need help,” Nathaniel responds, “No, you don’t get it. This is what it is. This is what makes me feel comfortable. This is not your mind. This is my mind.” So, there were a lot of different parallels going on.

KW: Joe told me that you filmed on location on Skid Row and hired a lot of the homeless as extras. What was that like?

JF: It was interesting. I learned to have a different outlook on Skid Row. I arrived with my bravado, being an urban kid from the country, and thinking that there were people there out to get you. There’s gangbanging going on on Skid Row… people selling drugs… people on the come up… So, I went down there with an attitude like, “Yo, I’m going down here, but I’m watching my back.” But I quickly learned that that wasn’t what it was all about. They were mostly people who were really just trying to survive and to hold onto the little bit of human dignity they had left. . . I learned a lot of lessons, so when I look at them now, I don’t think of them in the same way that I used to.

KW: What has been the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome?

JF: Ooh… The biggest obstacle? The mental obstacle of thinking that just because I was African-American that I couldn’t have it all.