Jamie Foxx has revealed that he thought that he was being pranked after doctors told him that he had just woken up from a 20-day coma.
The Oscar-winning actor was hospitalised in April 2023 after suffering a “medical complication”. It has since been revealed that the 57-year-old suffered a brain bleed that led to a stroke, rendering him unconscious in a hospital for weeks.
In Friday’s episode of The Graham Norton Show (17 January), Foxx explained that he “didn’t remember anything” about what had happened to him before he went to hospital.
“‘I didn’t remember anything happening so when I came to 20 days later I thought I was being pranked,” the Miami Vice star told Norton and the rest of the guests, who were Cameron Diaz, Michelle Yeoh, and Wicked’s Jonathan Bailey.
“It was beyond crazy,” he added. “When I woke up, I found myself in a wheelchair. I couldn’t walk.”
Foxx also reflected: “God blessed me with money and fame, but when I forgot about God, He blessed me with a stroke.”
Speaking about his return to the public eye, Foxx told Norton: “I knew I had to get back and realised the way to do it was by being funny. I told so many jokes people thought I was mad, and then I would act as someone else – for three whole days I was Denzel Washington.”
Foxx has previously opened up about his health issues in his first stand-up special on Netflix in December.
Joking about his near-death experience, Foxx said in the set: “Your life doesn’t flash before you. It was kind of oddly peaceful. I saw the tunnel, I didn’t see the light. It was hot in that tunnel.”
He then joked about going to hell, saying: “S*** am I going to the wrong place? Is that Puffy?,” referring to the disgraced P Diddy.
Foxx is currently starring in Back in Action, which marks Cameron Diaz’s first feature film in eight years. During the promotional campaign for the film, Diaz, 52, poked fun at Elon Musk’s position within Donald Trump’s administration.
In a video released by Complex, Foxx asked Diaz to share her favourite conspiracy theory, during which she gave her views on aliens and how one day she thinks we’ll be living on Mars. She then used this opportunity to mock Trump over Musk’s new job.
“If you think about where we’re at currently in technology, we sit in front of a screen – we don’t speak to each other, we don’t have to talk,” she said, before adding: “And we all know that we’re moving off the planet because now Elon Musk is our president.”
