In a 2018 interview with Yahoo!’s Nick Schager, Foxx revealed that as far as Stone was concerned, he botched his initial audition for the role of Willie “Steamin'” Beamen on “Any Given Sunday.” The “Platoon” director was put off by Foxx’s high-decibel delivery, which he attributed to his television experience. “I remember him writing as I was leaving, ‘Jamie Foxx, slave to television.’ Because he was very loud. Everything I said was out loud.”
But as Stone struggled to find the right actor for the brash up-and-coming quarterback who leads his team to an unlikely championship, he revisited Foxx. Always the witty actor, Foxx changed tack and sold the filmmaker on his athleticism. As he told Yahoo!:
“I didn’t lean on my acting skills; I leaned on my quarterback skills — I was a high school quarterback, I passed for over 1,000 yards. What I told him was, ‘You may not know all the intricacies. what you” I’m talking about with acting. But when it comes to football, I know exactly what it is.” So instead of auditioning and reading, I made a VHS tape of me as the character, Willy Beaman. I gave it to him and he liked it. He turned it into Warner Bros. . and we began our journey.”
