Jamie Foxx Shines in His Oscar-winning Role as Ray Charles
Biographies about musicians are no exception; Selena, for instance, accentuated the positive aspects of the Texas-born singer who was murdered by the former president of her fan club in Corpus Christi. Her father, Abraham Quintanilla, was one of the executive producers of the Jennifer Lopez megahit, so it’s not terribly surprising that the focus would be on Selena’s gradual rise to stardom, with only a cursory look at her tragic end.
Fortunately, Taylor Hackford’s 2004 Ray, starring Jamie Foxx as the legendary American musician Ray Charles, avoids the usual whitewashing and gives us a fascinating and moving glimpse into the life and times of a true innovator of soul, blues, and gospel music, warts and all.
Hackford, whose best-known film is An Officer and a Gentleman, was doubly blessed when he began production of this 2-hour, 33 minute-long film. First, he received the full collaboration of Ray Charles himself, who not only allowed Hackford to use 96 pieces of music associated with the late musician, but also insisted that the film depict all aspects of his life, including the tragic death of his brother George, the loss of his eyesight, his early career in Seattle and the “Chitlin Circuit,” his marriage to Della Bea Charles, his on-the-road womanizing, and even his addiction to heroin.
Second, Hackford was fortunate that it took 15 years from the time he bought the rights to film Charles’ life story till production began in 2002, because it was then that he was able to cast comedian and actor Jamie Foxx (Collateral) in the film’s main role. Not only is Foxx a gifted thespian who can disappear into the character he’s portraying, but he’s also a skilled musician; in the featurette Walking in His Shoes, we learn that Foxx has been playing the piano since he was three years old and went to college on a music scholarship. In fact, he played the piano with Charles as part of his preparation for the role – there’s no fake piano-playing in Ray as there is in Casablanca.
Ray’s narrative covers a 31-year period in Ray Charles Robinson’s life, starting when he talks his way onto a Greyhound bus to Seattle; when the driver balks at letting a blind black man aboard his bus on a cross-country trip, the canny Ray claims he lost his sight in World War II. As the film progresses, the story alternates between the musician’s gradual rise to stardom and flashbacks to his hardscrabble childhood as the son of a sharecropper in North Florida.
Considering that Ray Charles Robinson, Jr. is one of the film’s producers, it’s refreshing to see that writer James L. White and Hackford were willing to show Charles as a flawed and complex man. It would have been so easy to make Ray into a Hollywood version of an ABC After School Special: boy goes blind, but makes a name for himself in a rags-to-riches tale worthy of Horatio Alger. But Charles insisted that Ray be an honest account of his life, so not only do we see his amazing struggle to be independent and to follow his mother Aretha’s (Sharon Warner) words to “not be a cripple,” but we see his selfish and sometimes callous side, especially in his relationships with women.
We also see, interestingly enough, that he was cannier and business-savvy than people expected of him. Early on, he shows incredible courage when he dumps his first manager after he discovers she’s been stiffing him with the help of the band leader. Later on, he makes groundbreaking deals, first with Atlantic Records, then with ABC, where he not only insists on choosing different styles of music to perform, but the rights to own his “master recordings.”
Ray also benefits greatly from a talented supporting cast which includes Kerry Washington, Clifton Powell, Harry Lennix, Terence Dashion Howard, Larenz Tate, Richard Schiff, and Regina King. When combined with Foxx’s electrifying performance, their acting talents lift Ray head and shoulders above the average Hollywood bio-pic.
For either the dedicated Ray Charles fan, or those viewers who like to see a well-made made film with top-notch acting and great music, Ray is definitely worth watching.
Ray: Partial Cast List
Jamie Foxx … Ray Charles
Kerry Washington … Della Bea Robinson
Regina King … Margie Hendricks
Clifton Powell … Jeff Brown
Harry J. Lennix … Joe Adams
Bokeem Woodbine … Fathead Newman
Aunjanue Ellis … Mary Ann Fisher
Sharon Warren … Aretha Robinson
C.J. Sanders … Young Ray Robinson
Curtis Armstrong … Ahmet Ertegun
Richard Schiff … Jerry Wexler
Larenz Tate … Quincy Jones
