Posted by Richard Head

Thursday April 23, 2009

Jamie Foxx admits he almost turned down the role for his latest movie The Soloist — because he has a lifelong fear of mental illness.

The actor, 41, plays characters with such conviction that he ‘becomes them’ — but being schizophrenic musician Nathaniel Ayers affected him so badly it nearly broke him.

“I went to the bathroom and broke down, talking to my manager about it,” Foxx explains. “I’ve always had a childhood fear about losing my mind.

“So I had to lose my mind every day on set, and sometimes you didn’t have enough time to get your mind back by the weekend, and the next thing you know you’re back on set, so it was really real. I had no idea that the mind could be that fragile.”

Tags: jamie foxx