Jamie Foxx Jokingly Pretended to Be Denzel Washington for 3 Days After Near-Fatal Stroke: 'People Thought I Was Mad'

Jamie Foxx is recalling how his reliance on humor while recovering from a medical emergency left people baffled.

The actor was filming Back in Action alongside Cameron Diaz when he suffered a brain bleed that led to a stroke in April 2023. On his Netflix special that premiered last month, he confessed he lost days of memories due to the medical incident.

“I was very unwell, but now I am back feeling good,” Foxx, 57, said in a new appearance on The Graham Norton Show. “It makes you realize that you need people that care and love you around to get you through it.”

While filming the BBC show that airs on Friday, Jan. 17, Foxx admitted he thought he was “being pranked” when told 20 days had passed that he couldn’t remember, and that it felt "beyond crazy."

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Related: What Happened to Jamie Foxx? The Details of the Actor’s Life-Threatening Stroke — and Why He Doesn't Remember 20 Days of Recovery

“I knew I had to get back and realized the way to do it was by being funny," Foxx continued. “I told so many jokes people thought I was mad, and then I would act as someone else – for three whole days I was Denzel Washington."

The admission comes six and a half years after Foxx did a funny impersonation of the Equalizer actor while interviewing him for Grey Goose’s OFF SCRIPT YouTube series.

Washington, 70, was left in hysterics as Foxx mocked how he said, “Get your f---ing hands off me” in multiple movies, calling the line Washington's "calling card."

Foxx then recreated his fellow Academy Award winner's facial expressions, before continuing the comedic conversation.

Having been flown to a rehabilitation facility in Chicago after his near-fatal stroke, Foxx spent weeks learning how to walk again. In August 2023, he shared an update on Instagram revealing that he was finally starting to feel like himself again.

The actor waited until January 2024 to resume filming Back in Action with Diaz, and revealed on The Graham Norton Show Friday that when it came to making the action-comedy, he was happy for someone to pretend to be him when doing his stunts to “make me look good.”

Diaz, 52, also credited Foxx with bringing her back to movies after a decade-long hiatus, and said she had “so much fun” doing her own stunts for the flick.

“I had 10 years of not paying attention to anything — not accepting any advances — and then I got this script and thought that maybe it was time,” she added.

Back in Action is now streaming on Netflix.

The Graham Norton Show airs on BBC One Friday, Jan, 17. at 4:40 p.m. ET/10:40 p.m. BST.

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