Jamie Foxx Says He ‘Saw the Tunnel’ During Mystery Medical Issue: ‘I Wouldn’t Wish What I Went Through on My Worst Enemy’

Jamie Foxx made his first public appearance on Monday night (Dec. 4) since a mysterious “medical complication” sent him to the hospital in April, telling the audience at the Critics Choice Association’s Celebration of Cinema and Television: Honoring Black, Latino and AAPI Achievements that the incident was harrowing.

“I couldn’t do that six months ago, I couldn’t actually walk to [the stage]. And I’m not a clone, I’m not a clone. I know a lot of people saying that I was cloned out there,” the Oscar-winner joked to the crowd at the Fairmont Plaza Hotel in Century City in Los Angeles according to The Hollywood Reporter. “It feels good to be here. I cherish every single minute now, it’s different. I wouldn’t wish what I went though on my worst enemy because it’s tough when it’s almost over, when you see the tunnel. I saw the tunnel, I didn’t see the light. It was hot in that tunnel too, I don’t know where I was going. ‘S–t, am I going to the right place?’”

The appearance by the star of The Burial was an unannounced surprise to the audience and marked Foxx’s first official public appearance since his hospitalization; to date, spokespeople for Foxx, 55, have not provided any details on what medical condition prompted the actor’s hospitalization. The Association did not announce in advance that Foxx was slated to receive the Vanguard Award for his performance in the recently released Amazon Prime legal thriller The Burial, in which he co-stars with Tommy Lee Jones, Jurnee Smollett and Alan Ruck.

THR said Foxx took the stage unassisted and displayed his signature quick wit and sense of humor when describing how the medical scare gave him a new appreciation for his life and career. “I have a new respect for life, I have a new respect for my art. I watched so many movies and listened to so many songs trying to have the time go by,” he said. “Don’t give up on your art, man, don’t give up on your art. When you realize that it could be over like that… I got to tell you don’t give up on your art and don’t let them take the art from you either.”

Foxx’s daughter, Corrine, announced in April that her dad had been hospitalized while filming Back in Action in Atlanta and that he was “already on his way to recovery.” She did not provide any additional information at the time about what ailed the actor before an update a month later in which she said he had left the hospital and was “recuperating” at home.

Foxx did not appear in public during the period and in August he returned to Instagram and said he was “finally startin’ to feel like myself.”