Trivia / Ray

• Actor-Shared Background: Like Charles, Jamie Foxx is a Southern black musician who uses a stage name and dealt with racial segregation growing up. Amusingly, they didn't actually know he could play the piano when they cast him.
• Approval of God: As Warts and All states in the main section, Ray Charles was given a braille copy of the script to read before production began, and other than two scenes, he approved of it. The two scenes were removed from the script after his input.
• The Cast Showoff: When it was being explained to Jamie Foxx how they would make it look like he was playing the piano, he stopped the explanation by stating that he knew how to play so such tricks wouldn't be necessary. In every scene with him at the keys, it's genuine.
• Dawson Casting: Foxx was in his mid to late thirties when this film was made. So any scene featuring Ray Charles between 1948 (when he turned 18) to about maybe 1960 is this.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Jamie Foxx wore prosthetics over his eyes which made him blind for as many as 14 hours a day, and also learned Braille, in order to convincingly play Ray Charles.
  • Likewise, Curtis Armstrong, who played Ahmet Ertegun, had to shave off his thick curly hair in order to play Ertegun, who was already undergoing male pattern baldness when he signed Ray to Atlantic. Amusingly, most of that hair was eventually used to make a wig for the already bald Richard Schiff, who had been cast to play Jerry Wexler.
• Fake Nationality: Curtis Armstrong, an American of Italian descent, plays the Turkish-born producer Ahmet Ertegun.
• Non-Singing Voice: All singing was the voice of Ray Charles, despite Jamie Foxx's uncanny impersonation.
• Role Reprise: Jamie Foxx had previously played Ray Charles multiple times on In Living Color!.
• Tom Hanks Syndrome: Jamie Foxx has done considerably more dramatic work since winning an Oscar for this film.
• What Could Have Been: Denzel Washington was first approached to play the title role, but passed on the project. Cuba Gooding Jr. also passed on it.

---