Jamie Foxx Talks Working With Dave Franco in ‘Day Shift’

Jamie Foxx lives to entertain, and that was exactly his goal with Day Shift.

His range as an actor is impressive—who else can effortlessly go from Oscar-winning biopics to vampire-hunting action flicks? The vampire genre has been around since the beginning of time and with Day Shift, Foxx has teamed up with costar, Dave Franco, to deliver a fresh, fun iteration that is sure to provide fans of these styles of films with the kind of bloody gore and excitement they adore. 

The film follows the story of a guy named Bud Jablonski (Foxx). Bud is a professional vampire hunter and killer but was kicked out of the vampire hunters union for breaking the rules and regulations. Now he is a pool cleaner in the San Fernando Valley to make ends meet, and kills vampires on the side to sell their fangs for extra cash. When his ex-wife Jocelyn Jablonski (Meagan Good) threatens to move away with their 10-year-old daughter (Zion Broadnax) to give her a better life, Bud goes crawling back to the union since they offer a higher premium for vampire kills.

In order to be allowed in again, he gets assigned a union rep named Seth (Dave Franco) to supervise him so he stays out of trouble. The tactic doesn’t work and Seth goes from a shy, dorky accountant to his partner in crime making their budding relationship the most hilarious aspect of the film. Foxx and Franco’s chemistry is the absolute highlight of the movie and made the bloody vampire flick worth watching. Complex caught up with the actors during a press junket for Day Shift in Miami and Foxx shared that he had his eyes set on working with Franco for years before they both signed up for the J.J. Perry film.

“I have been tracking Dave Franco for a long time. I’ve even pitched him movies, I said I gotta be in business with this guy and now finally here we are,” Foxx tells Complex. “I don’t call it a coming-out party, because we already know how great he is, but to me, he got a chance to flex every muscle that I knew he would be able to do and just take over the film. Every time we came to set I was wondering, what’s he going to bring?”

The premise of the movie is straightforward, so fans of this genre should know exactly what to expect going in—mindless, high-energy entertainment. Foxx and the rest of the cast—including Karla Souza as a powerful vampire Audrey, Snoop Dogg as vampire hunter Big John Elliot, and Eric Lange as union boss Ralph—brought in all of their strengths to this $100 million budget Netflix film and elevated into a summer flick that’s bound to keep viewers entertained. 

Check out our full interview with Foxx, Franco, and Souza above, where they talk about Day Shift, working together, and if there is a sequel in store.