Anelise was only four at the time, so she was all about playing, 24/7. I flew over to Australia with Anelise and Kristin [Grannis, Foxx’s ex-partner; Anelise’s mother] on this enormous two-decker plane. I sat downstairs with my family; on the upper level of the plane was all party.It was Leonardo DiCaprio (always Leo), Jonah Hill, Nas, the Fugees, nightclub owner Jason Strauss… The list went on and on – a slew of celebrities, all together upstairs for the 24-hour flight. I was confronted with my two worlds, converging in the same space – Jamie Foxx the party guy and Jamie Foxx the family guy.Maybe what I expected was like a sitcom episode where a guy has two dates on the same night and keeps jumping back and forth between the two.I don’t know why I thought that would work, considering every one of those sitcom episodes ends with the guy getting busted and losing both dates. But when party Jamie and family Jamie met face-to-face, it was clear who was gonna win. Family Jamie every time.I could hear the club music pounding upstairs, boom boom boom, while I was sitting next to Anelise watching The Little Mermaid. I kept trying to ignore the party music by singing along to the movie louder. But I found myself like mermaid Ariel, looking up, wishing I could be PART OF THAT WOOOOORLD.My phone kept ringing with my guys calling me from upstairs.“You comin’ up?” my longtime friend and personal assistant Dave Brown asked. Dave’s daughter is close in age to Anelise, but she had stayed home. Dave was rolling solo – and looking for his wingman.“Maaaan, I’ll get killed if I come up there!” I whispered into the phone. Anelise was watching me closely. “Are you going up?” she asked. “No! Why would I want to go up there?” I said. Why would I wanna go eat crab legs with superstars when I can watch a crab sing about how cool living under the sea is – for the fifth time? Why do kids love watching the same movie over and over?I kept hearing pop pop pop sounds. Champagne bottles. For 20 straight hours. Damn. But I never went upstairs. I stayed with my family through the entire flight. And I had a great time with them. When we finally landed in Australia, the parties split into two separate vacations – there was the family stuff for me and there was the frolic for my dudes.My family and I were gonna go see some koala bears at the zoo while the other dudes were going to something called a “champagne bar” – as if those motherf*ckers needed more champagne.Soon after the zoo, we took a boat excursion with other families and kids, enjoying the lovely views of the Australian coastline. Wow, this is beautiful. So much fun, I was thinking. My phone rang. I looked down – it was DiCaprio.“Yo, pal, can you break away?” he asked.“What you got going on?”“Well, there’s a boat coming by. You’ll see in a second.”Right on cue, a gorgeous boat came drifting by. The scene onboard looked crazy, like somebody had transported a Hollywood Hills mansion on to the water: multiple hot tubs, a pool, tonnes of food. My eyes bulged. I spotted Leo, waving at me. I gotta admit, I was a little jealous. I had to keep reminding myself that the joy of spending time with my children trumped multiple hot tubs. But damn, my back muscles started relaxing just looking at those jets. As they drove by, I could only shake my head. I felt something tugging at my shorts. I looked down; it was Anelise. “Daddy, we play?” she said. I nodded. “OK, let’s play, baby. Let’s play.” Had my daughter not been there with me, I would have been all over that boat. But this was Grown-Up Jamie. This was Sagittarius Man 2.0 – the Sag who had been dedicated to being a kid, now grown up and just enjoying his kids.In the end, I didn’t regret my decision for a minute. Seriously. C’mon, why don’t you believe me? This is an extract from Act Like You Got Some Sense by Jamie Foxx (Constable, $32.99), out Tuesday.
Source: Sun Herald
