Jamie Foxx talks 'Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!' and how Martin Lawrence inspired him to play multiple characters

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SAEED ADYANI/NETFLIX

Jamie Foxx returns to his sitcom roots in the new Netflix series Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!

The series, executive produced by Foxx’s daughter Corinne Foxx, follows Jamie as Brian Dixon, a bachelor and business owner who suddenly becomes a full-time dad to his teenage daughter Sasha, played by Kyla-Drew. Foxx tells ABC Audio that seeing himself through his daughter’s eyes made him realize that he’s not so cool.

“To all dads out there — no matter how cool you think you are with your friends and what you’re doing, your daughter is looking at you like, ‘Man this dude right here is so corny,'” Foxx laughs.

“And so we wanted to bring that,” he continues. “We wanted to bring [a] dad [who] is not sure of himself.”

Unlike his previous sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show, where Foxx says “you saw a guy who… knew he was on his way,” Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! shows a man who has to “understand” that he can’t always put himself first. 

The Oscar winner also loved getting to play multiple characters again.

“I was always jealous of Martin Lawrence,” Foxx shares. “[He] had the sweet spot of all those characters. So when… Bentley Kyle Evans, who created Martin and The Jamie Foxx Show, was like, ‘Let’s do these characters…’ I said, ‘Let’s get to it.'”

And that’s exactly what Jamie did, playing Rev. Sweet Tee, Rusty, and Cadillac Calvin on the series. Foxx says he hopes to tap his In Living Color co-star David Alan Grier — who plays his father on the show — to take on multiple roles as well.  

“I said, ‘Dave, fingers crossed, we get a second [season] — we can now start hitting them with all the characters,'” he teases. 

Dad Stop Embarrassing Me! is now available on Netflix.

 

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