The biographical movie about legendary musician Ray Charles opens nationwide today, but theaters in New Orleans, where “Ray” was primarily filmed, held sneak previews for New Orleans residents Tuesday.
Director, producer and creator Taylor Hackford visited the city for television appearances, radio talk show interviews and to attend the premiere.
“Ray,” starring Jamie Foxx, tells how Charles revolutionized music and overcame his difficult past as a poor, black, blind man from the South. The musical drama poignantly illustrates his creative genius and his battles with demons from his childhood.
Charles created a new kind of music, a syncretism of jazz, rhythm & blues, rock ‘n’ roll, and country & western, which broke down musical and social barriers. The audience witnesses the events of his life that inspired his soulful music.
Viewers go on a journey that starts with Charles’ courageous decision to board a bus in Florida alone and head for the Seattle jazz scene to make something of himself. Along his rise to the top he overcame prejudice, people trying to take advantage of him, drug addiction and dealt with the haunting memory of his brother’s death.
He became one of the first musicians in the business to control his own career and found the will to overcome his addictions when they threatened the thing he loved most in life: music. He was driven by the promise that he made to his mother that he would never let anyone turn him into a cripple.
Hackford delved into Charles’ past for 15 years before the film’s release. He was inspired by Charles’ music the first time he heard it, but he wanted the movie to be about more than just Ray the musician. He wanted to reveal Ray the businessman, the recovering heroin addict, the woman magnet and the blind man who gave the world a new way to hear.
The people who most influenced Charles also come to life on the big screen. Hackford searched long and hard for the perfect actors to portray these characters.
He said he felt luck brought him actors made for the parts such as Sharon Warren, who played Aretha Robinson, the musician’s mother and the woman Charles called the most important person in his life.
Three other significant women are portrayed in “Ray” – his wife, Della Bea Robinson, played by Kerry Washington; Regina King as Margie Hendricks, Charles’ mistress and one of the “Raylettes” back-up singers; and Mary Ann Fisher, his first female singer and one of his first extramarital affairs, played by Aunjanue Ellis.
Clifton Powell plays Charles’ longtime assistant Jeff Brown. Fathead Newman, the saxophonist in Charles’ band for many years, is portrayed by Bokeem Woodbine. And Curtis Armstrong plays Atlantic Records owner Ahmet Ertegun, who helped propel Charles’ career.
Foxx gives a performance that borders on a supernatural reincarnation of a young Ray Charles. Hackford has said that the actor’s musical background, which included a university piano scholarship, as well as Charles’ personal approval of the actor before his death, made him wonder if a higher power didn’t plan for the film to work out that way.
Foxx spent a lot of time studying the musical legend’s nuances and practiced getting around with his eyes sealed. Even Charles’ son Ray Charles Robinson, Jr. was amazed at how Foxx embodied his father.
“Ray” is packed with powerful, convincing performances, and it’s appropriately studded with Charles’ chart topping hits that Foxx masterfully lip-syncs.
Gigi Alford can be reached at [email protected].
