Jamie Foxx Reveals The Funny Way He Recruited Dave Franco For Day Shift - Exclusive
Hot off of his, well, electrifying return as Spider-Man foe Electro in the 2021 MCU blockbuster "Spider-Man: No Way Home," revered actor Jamie Foxx is back on the side of the good guys in the new movie "Day Shift." Foxx, of course, has proven that he's a showman of many talents over the years, from biopics like "Ray," which earned him his best actor Oscar for playing music legend Ray Charles, to the riveting sports drama "Any Given Sunday." In addition, Foxx first played Electro opposite Andrew Garfield's titular character in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" and has starred in many action films, including "The Kingdom" and "Law Abiding Citizen." Adding to his list of stellar achievements, Foxx entered director Quentin Tarantino's historically revisionist universe in the Western revenge thriller "Django Unchained."
The focus of Foxx's early career, however, was in comedy, on such shows as the Fox Television sketch series "In Living Color" from 1991 to 1994 and the WB sitcom "The Jamie Foxx Show," which aired from 1996 to 2001. Now, Foxx is back in the comedy realm — with lots of action and horror mixed in — with "Day Shift," which is new on Netflix. Foxx stars as Bud Jablonski, a struggling pool cleaner who uses the job as a front for his real occupation as a vampire hunter. Bud tends to operate outside the rules of the international union of vampire hunters, though, which explains why he was kicked out and earns much less money than his colleagues. Saddled with a huge financial deadline that, if missed, may result in his estranged wife and their daughter moving away, Bud is let back into the union on a probationary basis, but is required to have a nerdy union rep, Seth (Dave Franco), at his side to monitor his every move.
Before the movie started filming, though, it was Foxx who had his eyes tracking on Franco to get him to punch into "Day Shift."
Foxx was impressed with Franco's comedy gifts and knack for stunt work
While the film's "John Wick"-inspired action and "Evil Dead"-like horror stylings are the forefront of "Day Shift," just as crucial to the film's success is the comedy, and Foxx said he was intent on landing the perfect actor to take in all the fun with him — and Franco was his man. "What made this so cool was having my guy next to me, Dave Franco, who I've been trying to get in a movie for the longest [time]," Jaime Foxx, motioning to Dave Franco, told Looper in an exclusive interview. "I was courting this guy. I was sending him text messages with pictures of him. I would send him pictures of himself and say, 'How are you this funny and this good-looking?' I've got this picture where he is in a mock [turtle]neck and he's smoldering with his great looks."
The bonus that Foxx and director J.J. Perry got with Franco, though, was the actor's willingness to also take some lumps by participating in the film's stunts. "[I was] brilliantly surprised with how athletic he was and how he told the stunt guys, 'Let's push it further,'" Foxx said.
Franco added, "The stunt team had certain goals for us. They're like, 'If we can get you to do these moves on camera, we're golden.' I was like, 'No, no, no, let's go past that. Let's surprise our director. Let's give him stuff he's not even expecting.' [I wanted to do it] because I played sports my whole life and I love getting physical for these movies — and I definitely got some bruises and scars to show for it, but it was so fun."
"Day Shift" is streaming exclusively on Netflix.