My wife and I watched
movie Ray a couple of weeks ago when it came out on DVD. In movie Jaime Foxx plays legendary singer Ray Charles. I was amazed at how Jaime had captured essence of Ray Charles. Many times throughout movie I wondered if it was Jaime Foxx or Ray Charles I was seeing on my TV.When I did research on Jaime Foxx's preparation for movie I understood why he had captured Ray Charles so perfectly. In preparation for Ray, movie, he adapted many of Ray Charles' physical characteristics and immersed himself in Soul, Jazz and Blues recordings to set mood; attended classes at Braille Institute; and spent weeks during rehearsal and production walking around with his eyes sealed tight for 12 hours a day, to gain an intimate understanding of what it really means to be blind.
Many on set where stunned by how spontaneous and natural actor's embodiment of Charles became. But imitation was never point for Foxx. "The key word for me was nuance, because I didn't want to simply impersonate him," says Foxx. "Rather, I wanted to capture some part of his spirit, that's all. There were a lot of little touches which I tried to layer-his musicality, his warmth, his sense of balance, his posture-until physical side of things all fell into place."
The true story sells itself, and Foxx's interpretation is so uncanny that lifelong friends of real Ray expressedgenuine confusion on set.
For all this hard word and dedication Jaime Foxx was paid millions of dollars and awarded highest compliment by movie industry, an Oscar.
What does this have to do with sales training, everything!
Actors, athletes, doctors and lawyers are paid based on amount of preparation in their chosen field. Did Michael Jordan decide one day he wanted to play basketball and became an instant superstar? Do top heart surgeons in world one day decide to cut someone open and operate on their heart?
