LOS ANGELES?In our recent interview with Jamie Foxx, the actor who plays ?The Soloist? was asked how he has been guiding his daughter Corrinne Bishop, 15.

?The one thing we talked about was the Chris Brown and Rihanna situation,? Jamie answered.

As the whole world learned last February, Rihanna suffered cuts and bruises to her face that forced her to cancel a performance at the Grammy Awards. According to a police affidavit, singer Chris Brown was responsible for the assault. Chris has pleaded not guilty to charges of felony assault and making criminal threats against Rihanna.

Weird situation

?When I took my daughter to the Grammys,? Jamie recounted, ?she said, ?Dad, please tell me that Rihanna is not going to get back with Chris Brown.? I said, ?Well, I can?t tell you what she?s going to do. But I?ll tell you what you?ll never do.? And the reason that she was upset about the Rihanna incident was because last December, her favorite aunt was killed by her boyfriend.?

Jamie explained: ?So my daughter and her friends are in a very weird situation in our society because we sort of let things like that go. Like with the Chris Brown thing, we kind of said, ?Well, maybe it was Rihanna?s fault?? How do I raise my daughter when there are guys out there thinking they can get away with something like that? That?s where I am right now. I?m just making sure my daughter understands that she?s powerful, she?s going to be respected.?

Asked if he?d give Chris a second chance, Jamie?who is also a chart-topping recording artist?answered, ?I will give a person a second chance. But a person has to go and get fixed. Chris Brown is a great person. But there are flaws that have to be addressed?not so he can have a career but so he can be a young man. You have to address Rihanna so she can be a young woman. Let?s forget about selling records and doing movies now. Because if we don?t fix that young man and woman, those young men and women who look up to them?we can?t fix them.

?Chris Brown did some bad things. We have to call his attention to them. If we allow it to go on, when do we break the cycle? There are so many women who are in fear of their lives because as a society we?re not saying, ?That?s wrong.? Take the ?allegedly? out of ?allegedly this happened ?? We know it happened.?

?My daughter is 15 now,? continued the proud father. ?Size 9 shoes, 5?7? tall. Recently, we came out of a restaurant. People were taking pictures of us. Later, on the Internet, the caption on our photo said, ?Jamie Foxx with a young hottie? (laughter). They thought she was my girlfriend. So I?m dealing with how she?s going to be as a young woman.

?This past Christmas, I asked her, ?Well, the Winter Ball is coming up. Are there any boys?? She said, ?No, dad. Maybe next year.? I went, ?Oh, then that means there?s a prospect.? She said, ?No, I?m just telling you that maybe next year, it might happen.? So I?m dealing with it as best as a father can, raising a child in California.?

Apology to Miley

What was ironic was that Jamie recently apologized to Miley Cyrus when he guested on Jay Leno?s ?The Tonight Show.? Jamie made some harsh comments about Miley in his Satellite radio show which her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, decried as ?hurtful.?

In ?The Soloist,? Jamie Foxx plays Nathaniel Ayers, a musical prodigy with schizophrenia who ends up homeless in Los Angeles. Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey Jr.), a Los Angeles Times columnist who meets Nathaniel by chance, starts writing about his friendship with the former Juilliard student. Steve compiles his columns on Nathaniel into a book which inspires the film of the same title. Both Jamie and Robert turn in nomination-worthy performances.

Jamie, the Oscar and Golden Globe Best Actor for his portrayal of singer Ray Charles in ?Ray,? revealed how playing Nathaniel brought back some of his old fears and memories of a traumatic incident. ?I had a childhood fear of losing my mind,? he said. ?There was a sanitarium in my hometown (Terrell, Texas) called the Terrell State Hospital. We would visit and see the people. I?d be like, ?Oh, I hope that never happens to me.? When I was 18 in college, somebody slipped something in my drink as a prank. I ended up going to the hospital. For 11 months, I was in a bad situation. My roommate, a white guy from Nebraska, would talk to me every night. He would say, ?You?re here, everything is cool. You?re not going crazy.??

Flashbacks

Jamie continued: ?So in taking this role, I was worried that those flashbacks would come back. I talked to a psychiatrist and I asked a very foolish question. I said, ?Can you catch schizophrenia?? He said, ?No, you can?t catch it. It?s a thumbprint that will swing you back to it.? I explained to him what I went through. He said, ?The reason you went through that is post-traumatic stress.? So, doing the movie, that happened. I would call my manager at 3 o?clock in the morning and I would say, ?I know why Nathaniel says this, that and the other. And I am him.??

Jamie revealed, ?My manager would say, ?I?m on my way over.? So he gets there. I explain this stuff, sort of ranting. He says. ?Foxx, you sound a little ?? but to me, I was making perfect sense. That?s exactly what Nathaniel was doing. All of the things that he?s saying to us make perfect sense to him. But because it?s not like us, we want to fix it with a drug or therapy. Nathaniel would tell you, ?This is just the way I am.? So that was enlightening to me.?

We wrote last week that we met Nathaniel as he played his cello in the garden of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Last Monday, we saw him again, this time at the premiere of ?The Soloist? at the Paramount Studios lot. He repeated what he had earlier told us?he planned to put on blinders inside the theater. He probably didn?t want to see his struggles portrayed onscreen but he expressed how he wanted to listen to the music in the film, which includes pieces by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the interview, Jamie is optimistic about Nathaniel?s plight. ?Financially, they have set up a trust fund for him,? he said. ?But they don?t want to jerk him out of where he feels comfortable. His relationship with Steve is more enriched. He has something to celebrate. He has some good things happening in his life right now. From this moment on, his life will change forever. We?ll check on him here and there. But I think he?ll be OK.?

E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.