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Jamie Foxx is recalling an eerie conversation he had about getting his affairs in order right before his 2023 near-death medical emergency.
“You know what’s crazy? Before it happened, I was talking to my people that handle my stuff [and they asked], ‘Jamie, wanna go over some papers just in case something happens?’ ” Foxx told PEOPLE on Wednesday, March 12, during the Los Angeles premiere of the two-part Apple TV+ documentary Number One on the Call Sheet, which he co-produced.
As the actor, 57, remembers, he asked his team, “‘What’s gonna happen to me?’ ” — and not long after, he suffered a brain bleed that led to a stroke while making his movie Back in Action.
“Boom! Gone,” says Foxx, referring to the time immediately following his health crisis when he went into a coma and didn’t wake up until weeks later.
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The Oscar winner goes on to say the incident was much different from what he had always imagined his death might be like, likening it to a certain scene in a 1998 action-crime flick.
“I used to watch the movie Colors, when they had a shootout … I thought I was gonna go out like like Rocket [Don Cheadle], like go out in a shootout in the mall or something,” Foxx says. “I didn’t think I was just gonna go out asking for an aspirin.”
Foxx was in Atlanta filming Back in Action alongside Cameron Diaz and Glenn Close when he suffered the medical emergency in April 2023. He later revealed there are 20 days after the incident that he can’t remember.
“When it happened, the amount of love that was poured, the amount of people that reached out, really meant something,” Foxx says, adding of the aftermath, “When I was talking to [God], he said, ‘Hey man, I’m gonna give you the second chance — what you gonna do with it?’ “
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His answer? “I said, ‘I’m gonna put more smiles on people’s faces and I’m gonna do everything I can to.’ ”
To that end, Foxx channeled his experience into a standup comedy special titled What Had Happened Was … , which premiered on Netflix in December 2024.
“People like, ‘Where are the jokes?’ I said, ‘Y’all know me; I’m funny, man, I gotta tell the real story,’ ” Foxx tells PEOPLE. “There was some pushback on the God thing. I said, ‘Man, what y’all talking about? I gotta say what is.’ ”
As for what’s next, “I got some new jokes coming, so I’m going out,” he says. “I’ll probably be in Houston doing my thing.”
Number One on the Call Sheet is on Apple TV+ March 28.
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