Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr. star in The Soloist, a film about a friendship sparked between a journalist and a brilliant musician, Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx), who is homeless and suffering from schizophrenia. Steve Lopez (Downey Jr.), a Los Angeles Times columnist, discovers Ayers on the streets and helps him reclaim his gift. We sat down with the film’s stars to talk about the challenges of making such a film and how they hope this movie will affect people.

FZ: Jamie, I understand you met with the real Nathaniel Ayers. Were you imitating him or doing your own take on the situation?

Foxx:  Well, you imitate first. And then, hopefully the imitation falls away and then you actually become him. I knew we were on the right track when we had a round table of the people that hung out with Nathaniel and they said, “Hey, that’s Nathaniel!” So then you have to give into it and once you do that, everything becomes organic. The words are organic, playing the cello is organic. And then Robert Downey Jr. is a statesman, is a gentleman, is a star, is just everything. You know, I don’t even know if he knew how much he was helping out when he was giving me different pieces of advice and just not one false moment, so it was beautiful.

FZ: And how was it working with Jamie, Robert?

Downey, Jr.: I love the guy, and we’re very similar in our approach. Usually I’m on set with someone who’s recognizing that I have the tough job to do and they try to be sensitive and supportive of that. But it was quite the reverse this time – Jamie had the real, you know, tough job to do. And I feel like I kind of was off and observing from just inside the rank and sometimes I was skating aside and sometimes I was holding him up while he was reaching for something that was particularly hard to grasp when you’re surrounded by people and cameras are rolling. He was doing something so incredibly risky and personal. I’m looking forward to, after the film comes out and does it thing, kind of catching up with him after the fact. It’s hard to process things in real time.

FZ: Is it more challenging to play a real-life character that’s still alive today?

Downey, Jr.: Not when it’s Steve Lopez. Steve and I got together and we had a cigar and I listened to him tell stories about pieces and columns he wrote in other cities and I got a sense of what he was really trying to tell me, which was that there is something, at best, subversive, about the calmness of a journalist or reporter, when he has been for so many years underrated and misunderstood. It was great for me to get that point of view. What he’s trying to do is be acceptably subversive enough to influence just a little bit of change or give a little bit of insight into areas where there’s not enough light shown.

FZ: Now, Jamie, playing the cello is organic to some people…

Foxx: But not to me! It was tough. They really did a great job, because this was tough, being able to do this. I play the piano, and I was just like “How do you do this?” And after hours upon hours, everyday and we got it right.

FZ: And you did most of your own cello playing?

Foxx: Yes. And the thing is that, I want people to understand, I cannot sit down at the cello and make it sound like it does at the symphony.  But I know that if I hear the music I can put the note where it’s supposed to be so that when you see it on screen, I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

FZ: Tell me what this has done to your awareness of the homelessness situation.

Foxx: You know, I used to live near downtown, and so I thought I knew what homelessness was. That was the only thing I could afford, you know what I’m saying. Sort of close to downtown and had to park my car at the park, but I didn’t know anything about it, even though I would see those people all the time. And then I meet these people who were decent and smiling and happy, with great stories and then I realized a lot of us are only a couple of circumstances away from being there, so I got a new respect for them.

FZ: How do you think this film will affect people?

Foxx: Oh man, in such a great way. You know what I hope people do? In the times we’re living in now, I hope they’ll see this movie and say, “It’s not as bad as we think. Because these people have been dealing with this, they’ve been in a recession and depression for almost all of their lives.” So I hope we look at it and say, “Let me reboot my computer. And let me look at life as half full and not as the things we see on the news every day, as half empty, and it’s not that, when you look at these people.” That’s what I hope happens.

Downey: I think we put our best foot forward and I think we dialed up the volume on some issues that are kind of complex that are really base and fundamental to human experience. So many men and women who I’ve been talking to about this say that it’s timely and a couple of weeks ago they would have said, “How did you feel about it being pushed away from Oscar season?” I think these things tend to come out when they’re supposed to. And there is this kind of gap now before all of the summer movies come in and do their thing as expected, where a film like The Soloist has its place and I think it has tremendous value.