Jamie Foxx clearly remembers the moment he realized what it meant to be Number One on the Call Sheet – a Hollywood term for the lead actor or actress of a film listed first on the daily schedule.
“I was just talking about the incredible movie that rivaled Titanic, Booty Call, where I was the first name on the list,” the comedian jokes as we discuss the similarly-titled two-part documentary he co-produced, which streams on Apple TV+ from Friday, March 28, 2025. “I will tell you that there was a great feeling when you dream as a kid, you’re looking in that mirror in your bathroom, and you’re acting out some of your heroes that were on TV, from John Wayne, Sammy Davis Jr., and all these different things where you’re thinking, ‘This is light years away. This will never happen,’ suddenly, here you are on a movie set, they’re knocking on your door saying they want you on set, and you are first on the call sheet. It’s a great feeling. That’s why these two documentaries are so special. I didn’t know when I was growing up that there was anything called Number One on the Call Sheet. You realize it when you see it.”
“I remember working on Toys with Robin Williams. I was just a glorified extra. I had facial expressions, but I would watch Robin handle his business. He would do twelve takes, and with each take, he would do something different; it was amazing. I said, ‘Man, when I get my chance, I will do that.’ Being number one on the call sheet feels good because it is beyond your wildest dreams. We didn’t even know how to dream these things, but when they come true, it feels really good.”
Foxx shares another landmark career moment in this exclusive clip from the Apple TV+ documentary.
‘Number One On the Call Sheet’ Boasts An Ensemble Of Excellence
Showcasing Black excellence, Number One on the Call Sheet features some of Hollywood’s biggest stars revealing their journeys to game-changing leading roles. The first part, directed by Reginald Hudlin, focuses on men, including Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Idris Elba, and Daniel Kaluuya, to name a few. The second part, directed by Shola Lynch, includes the female perspective thanks to Cynthia Erivo, Angela Bassett, Halle Berry, Viola Davis, Whoopie Goldberg, Alfre Woodard, and more. The candid interviews cover everything from breakthroughs and blueprints for success to the highs and lows of their craft and the next generation’s potential.
“The fact that they exist was important, and the men’s story is different from the women’s story.” enthuses Lynch, the filmmaker behind such documentaries as Free Angela and All Political Prisoners and Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed. “The women’s story had to be true to the women, where they are, and what they shared with us in the interviews. To me, the interviews are gold. It was designed to make them feel so beautiful and safe, very Annie Leibowitz at work; that was my inspiration.”
“It was also like a box of chocolates in the way that you open something beautiful, with all these chocolates from the white to the dark, and each one has something inside, and you’re not aware of it until you take a bite. Hopefully, the interviews are surfacing everything they are, and at least what I felt on the set. I want the audience to get to know these women, not in a press junket way. It’s a conversation, not a promotional tour, so it’s special. It marks time. There is no other period in film history where we’ve had so many people who are number one, who have gone through the journey and achieved number one among men and among women.”
Hudlin, best known for directing Boomerang, House Party, and producing Django Unchained and Sidney, adds, “The fact is that we are constantly battling racism and sexism in America, and it was hard when I finally realized the depth of sexism and how horrible that is and how much that damages our country. Battling sexism isn’t just about lifting women up, as important as that is, that’s obviously crucial to battling sexism, but it’s also redefining masculinity and saying, ‘Look, there are all kinds of ways of being a man, there’s no one way, but look at this incredibly wide range of men who are intelligent, empathetic and supportive. You can say, ‘Oh, as a man, there are choices I can take that are not toxic and don’t require me to give up anything. I can be successful and a good human being simultaneously,’ that’s what you see in this film. I’m fortunate enough to be friends with so many of the people that you see in the movie, and I enjoy being with them, not just because they’re massively talented, but also because they are people you want to be around.”
However, although these are Hollywood stories of struggles and successes, they aren’t exclusive to the entertainment industry.
“This transcends our business and Hollywood,” Lynch explains. “Who doesn’t want to be number one on their own call sheet, right? Who doesn’t want to figure out how to climb that mountain and create more mountain?”
The Box Office Power Of Black Hollywood Should Never Be Underestimated
Among the plethora of social and industry issues both parts of Number One on the Call Sheet cover, one of the biggest the filmmakers highlight is that Black films don’t deliver worthwhile box office overseas with predominantly white audiences. However, a movie can’t be a hit at the international box office without a proper theatrical release internationally. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
“That’s very much the fact. I’ve talked to amazing, talented filmmakers in Japan who say, ‘Hey, we watch VHS of Blaxploitation movies without translation because we so desperately want to feel and touch the culture,'” Hudlin recalls. “There was an attitude that said Black films won’t play in the South because the audience is too prejudiced, even though most of the people who live in Southern states are black. When you look at the box office for Black films, that’s one of the biggest markets. When you see the success of movies like Menace II Society, Boyz n the Hood, Black Panther, Django Unchained, Boomerang, and we can go on and on, namely movies that were global successes, every time people go, ‘Wow, this is an amazing bit of over performance.’ No, it’s not an overperformance. It’s you underestimating the box office potential of those films.'”
“Thirty-five years ago, my first movie, House Party, came out, and when the studio was budgeting it, they said, ‘Well, we think the international box office of that movie is zero.’ Now you go, ‘Oh, that was the old days, but the fact is, we can jump forward to making Django Unchained, where I’m a producer. Quentin Tarantino is the filmmaker. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx, and they would wait for everybody to leave the room, then they’d turn to me and go, ‘Well, you know, there are two things that don’t travel, Black movies and westerns. You have a black Western. No one wants to see this.’ I did not debate with them. I said, ‘Look, I got Quentin Tarantino. Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio, so are you in and are you out?’ Believe me, they were in. Cut to us, making half a billion dollars. Well, if that’s a failure, I like to see what success is.”
Lynch adds, “Reggie touched on something super important. We just haven’t tapped into monetizing it because bootleg is real. There are black people all over the world, and there are other folks who are interested in what we create. I have always been surprised that people even see my documentaries bootlegged in other countries because they need them. They’re thirsty for it in a good way.”
Hudlin likens the hunger for Black films and stories in movie theaters to the rise in popularity of documentaries.
“They have really exploded in the marketplace because they’re more accessible because of streaming, so instead of having to find the art theater in that weird part of town, you can just turn on your TV and watch a documentary,” he explains. “Documentaries are no longer a subcategory. They’re just movies. People watch them because it’s a movie with a story they want to see, and it happened. The fact is that, as the business is now a global business, and as Daniel Kaluuya says in our film, ‘There are a billion black people. There’s nothing minor about us. Don’t call us a minority. We’re major.’ This is the reality of box office operations that has to be acknowledged in the business. The administration may be scared of the power of the black dollar, but at the end of the day, if we are capitalists, let’s make capitalist decisions.”
Jamie Foxx concludes, “That’s a great T-shirt. We are capitalists; let’s make capitalist decisions. I love that.”