Jamie Foxx Remembers Mike Tyson's Glory Days, Eager To Bring Them Back

Not too long ago, Jamie Foxx and Taylor Hackford teamed up and essentially took over Hollywood for a few memorable months, as fans and critics alike marveled at the “Booty Call” comedian’s transformation into Ray Charles. Now, I’ve got to admit that I’m a bit fascinated by the duo’s current plans to reunite – and take on an even more difficult real-life icon to portray in Mike Tyson.

Yesterday, we broke the news that Foxx has tapped Hackford to direct him in the upcoming Tyson biopic that he and the former champ have spoken about in the past. If you read those comments, it’s pretty obvious that Foxx views the controversial Iron Mike as something of a misunderstood figure, and it seems likely that the biopic would aim to make Foxx’s admitted friend a bit more sympathetic. In the rest of our conversation with Jamie, he expanded a bit on such feelings.

“It’s strange,” Foxx said of why he wants to portray Tyson. “Look at society. Sometimes we put you up so high, and some people say it’s to get aim on you, but once you get up there it’s like: What do you do once you’re up there now?”

The Oscar-winner told us that he can remember back to the late '80s/early '90s heyday of Tyson and how beloved the man once was. “You wanted to see how short it was,” the “Law Abiding Citizen” star said of Tyson’s legendarily brief knockouts of his opponents in those days. “I’ll never forget this: At my house in Vegas, fifty-five people there. Eight guys, the rest were women, corporate. I’m not talking about groupies; corporate women, have their own money, own jobs, watching this fight.”

“I’m like, you like Mike Tyson? [And the women said:] ‘Oh yes; something about him. Oh, oh my goodness,’” Foxx grinned. “And he was coming out of the tunnel, ‘Oh he doesn’t have his shirt on. Oh!’ And he was just this ultimate man. I remember telling everybody ‘Okay, everybody get dressed right now because it’s not going to take that long for him to knock this kid out, and we’ve got to get to the after-party. I remember him knocking [his opponent] out, and it was like the Daytona 500, getting to our cars to get to the after-party just to get a glimpse of this guy. He was bigger than life.”

“[The film will be told] in his words. A lot of times we’ve just seen everyone else’s take; it would be great to just get his take,” Foxx explained. He's looking forward to rolling cameras on the flick and getting people to look at one of our generation’s most controversial characters in a new light. “I think he has a tremendous story. And if he allows me to do it, I think it will be one of those things were it will be really a serious event.”

What do you think? Does Foxx have what it takes to re-invent Iron Mike? Or is the ex-champ better off left alone?

Tags Jamie Foxx, mike tyson, Taylor Hackford, tyson