It's only September, but it's already been a busy fall for Oscar winner and Grammy nominee Jamie Foxx. He got Jennifer Garner to dance at MTV's Video Music Awards, he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, he logged hours in the Sirius Satellite Radio studio for his show, The Foxxhole. Oh yeah, and then there's a little $70 million movie he made called The Kingdom, which kicks off fall movie season, quite literally, with a bang.

Loosely based around the FBI's investigation of the 1996 bombings of Saudi Arabia's Khobar Towers, The Kingdom finds Foxx leading a small team of FBI agents (Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman) into enemy territory to investigate a terrorist attack on an American housing compound in the Middle East and hunt down those responsible before becoming the hunted themselves. We managed to get Foxx to slow down long enough at the L.A. premiere to discuss making a politically charged thriller in today's unpredictable climate, his co-star's Academy Award-worthy turns, and what job will keep him busy until next spring.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: As they promise in the trailer, the last 30 minutes of The Kingdom is intense, edge-of-your-seat kind of stuff. It looks so seamless yet I imagine actually shooting those scenes isn't quiet so smooth.
JAMIE FOXX: It does end up looking a lot more seamless than it is when you are filming it. When you're doing it, you have an idea of where you're going so you can connect the dots. So even if you shoot a scene out of sequence, you go over what just happened and what happens next and it all comes together. And it helps that [director] Peter Berg is just flawless in putting it all together.

This was your first time working with Chicago's Hope's doc-turned-director. He often inspires repeat performances, like Jason Bateman in this film and the upcoming Will Smith-vehicle Hancock, Tim McGraw in Friday Night Lights and The Kingdom, Jeremy Piven in Very Bad Things and The Kingdom.
Most definitely I want to work with Peter again. Denzel Washington said it best: He works with just a handful of cats and then he knows exactly what he is in for and how the film will turn out. He has a couple of guys he trusts, and I like that strategy. Peter Berg is most definitely one on my list now. I would work with Peter from here on out.

What is it about him that encourages such trust and loyalty from actors?
He gets it, and I think that some of it comes from being an actor himself. And he doesn't have trust issues. He hires you to do what you do and lets you make decisions, and will debate your choices with you if you want and if he feels strongly about something, but mostly, he just plays it loose.

NEXT PAGE: ''I like being part of a film that makes people think about the current state of the union and the government and about how you live your life. Movies have that power so we should be using it more often.''

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