Singer/actor Jamie Foxx didn't need to carry out much research to play the manipulative music boss in Dreamgirls - he based his performance on real-life record company executives he knows.

Foxx admits his run-ins with music industry bosses for 2005 album Unpredictable provided him with the perfect preparation for the role of manipulative label executive Curtis Taylor in the new movie.

He says, "I did my record and the record executives will tell you something crazy just out their a*s so they get you messed up and not thinking about the project.

"Some dude said to me, 'I don't give a damn if you sell one record or a million records - my check is still the same.'

"It's like the ugly guy who landed the good-looking girl. You don't know why he landed her, but if you heard the conversations at home: 'You know you're really not that pretty, right?' That's where I got Curtis from.

"I didn't get him from [Motown label founder] Berry Gordy, I got him from the executives I have met over the past couple of years."