'Tubbs' Of Love For Jamie Foxx

It has been a pretty good 18 months for Jamie Foxx, who was nominated for two Academy Awards, winning best actor for playing the title role in "Ray," the biopic about Ray Charles. He also picked up two Grammy nominations, and his debut CD, "Unpredictable," has gone double platinum.

Now, Foxx is on the big screen playing Ricardo Tubbs in an update of the 1980s TV classic "Miami Vice." He told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm that it was his idea to make the movie.

"As a matter of fact," he said, "I talked to ('Vice' creator) Michael Mann a few years back when he was doing 'Ali,' you know: 'We need to step it up and do 'Miami Vice,' man.' "

Foxx, born Eric Morlon Bishop in Terrell, Texas, Dec. 13, 1967, was a big fan of the TV show, but, he added, "What Michael Mann does in this film, however, he turns the TV series inside out. It's gritty. It's dark. It moves kind of like mysterious and relationships between Colin Farrell, the knockdown Casanova ... Naomi Harris. Really happy about it."

During the shooting of the movie, the cast and crew were caught in a hurricane, and while they were filming a fake gunfight, a real one broke out nearby. "So we had to get up and out, the reason being … I didn't have any bullets in my gun … So, you know, we had to get out of there. We made it."

There's plenty of action in the movie that finds Foxx flying airplanes and running speedboats.

"I'm feeling gangster," the actor told Hannah. "I'm a little bit scared of the boats and airplanes. Up in the air, I get a little queasy, but I'm still a gangster … In the movie, I look fly. I look real cool. But I was a little tight."

He said he had a great time with Farrell, who plays Sonny Crockett in the movie.

"Threw some parties in Miami," Foxx recalled. "Eddie Murphy was there, Shaquille O'Neal, Jessica Simpson … I set the tone, because the minute I brought out Colin Farrell, the women went crazy."

Only four people have ever won Academy Awards and also had No. 1 albums: Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Barbra Streisand — and Jamie Foxx. "It means everything to see R&B is back, real love music is back," he said.

And he gave a shout out to J-Records, Clive Davis and Kanye West, "because Kanye West made it hot."