FOXX TACKLES WORST FEAR IN 'SOLOIST': Actor describes nearly losing his mind while playing schizophrenic cello prodigy.

Scroll down to watch Jamie tell how he came to play his character in 'The Soloist'

     *He may be an Academy Award-winning actor, but Jamie Foxx says playing a mentally-unsettled man in the upcoming film "The Soloist" was so challenging that even he doubted his ability to pull it off.

       "It was something that I enjoyed, but it shredded me," Foxx revealed to EUR's Lee Bailey. "I went to places that I never thought I would ever go. I just remember being in my bathroom broke down, talking to my manager like, 'I don’t' know if I'll be able to finish this.'"      

       Foxx described nearly losing his mind while filming the movie, in which he plays real life homeless schizophrenic cello prodigy Nathanial Ayers.       

       "You had to lose your mind every day you're on set, and sometimes you didn’t have enough time to get your mind back before the weekend, Foxx explained.       

       "I just remember calling my manager like, 'I know what it is, I know why he's crazy!" And my manager's like, "Foxx? Are you okay?" I said, "No, no, no! He does this because of this, he does that because of this, and I'm gonna go crazy, and I'm gonna lose everything, and I'm gonna be homeless, but I'm gonna be able to play the piano great…' [My manager] says, 'Foxx, I'm on my way over.'"      

       When his manager arrived, along with Foxx's agent, they suggested that he talk to a psychiatrist, "just so you'll have a way to get out of your head," they said, according to the actor.            

       During filming of the movie, Foxx ran into Steven Spielberg at a function and was asked by the director how he was holding up, considering he was spending every day trying in the mind of a schizophrenic.      

       "How's that movie going for you because that's a tough thing, dealing with schizophrenia. How are you holding up?" Foxx said Spielberg asked him. He replied, "I'm good. Am I showing something?"      

       Foxx said he used to blow off the notion of actors needing their own therapists while filming difficult roles, but he's a firm believer in the concept now, stating, "I had no idea that the mind could be that fragile."      

       "The Soloist," also starring Robert Downey Jr., arrives in theaters on April 24.

Jamie tells ET the back story behind getting his role in 'The Soloist':