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Jim Carrey: The man behind the mask

By Fabian Waintal
ATLANTIC SYNDICATION
Wednesday, Dec 22, 2004, Page 16

PHOTO COURTESY OF ATLANTIC SYNDIATION

Having experienced poverty firsthand, Jim Carrey foresaw the future that he now enjoys as the best-paid comedian in Hollywood. Among all kinds of answers, some serious, others funny, we discovered the person behind the mask.

Fabian Waintal: Is it true that before being famous you made a million-dollar check out to yourself, predicting the success that you know enjoy?

Jim Carrey: Yes. This was early on when I was working as a standup comic. I had a baby and we were living in a single apartment toward downtown Los Angeles, with the bed on the floor. The check made me feel better. It wasn't about the money but it was about where I'd be if I were making that kind of money.

FW: Where is the check now?

JC: I passed it on to my father.

FW: Did he cash it?

JC: (Laughing) No, but he saw how it really happened and that was much better.

(FW: Born in Ontario, Canada (Jan. 17, 1962), Jim Carrey arrived in Los Angeles in 1979, to earn a living from his celebrity impersonations that he had been practicing since high school. He had already traveled to Toronto to work as one of the cleaning staff at the Titan Wheels factory. From that experience, when he lived in a Volkswagen camper van, he learned to value the smallest of achievements. At 15 years old he started to make fun of his own misfortune, joking at his local Canadian comedy club, Yuk Yuks. In the US, he was more fortunate: after comic Rodney Dangerfield gave him the chance to open for his shows at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, he became the only white male actor on the multi-ethnic television series, In Living Color.

His chance to get a real million dollar check arrived in 1994 when Carrey inundated theaters with laughs in the movies Mask, Dumb & Dumber and Ace Ventura and replaced Robin Williams in the role as The Riddler in Batman Forever. Until then, actors such as Harrison Ford or Sylvester Stallone were getting US$15 million. Jim Carrey was the one who moved the goal posts, receiving a a US$20 million salary for The Cable Guy (1996), Liar Liar (1997) and Me, Myself & Irene (2000).)

FW: Is there something in particular that you don't like about your career?

JC: The worst thing about being a celebrity is that you can't be yourself all the time. People's expectations sometimes are a hard thing to deal with. But life is good.

FW: What is your next goal?

JC: I honestly want to destroy show business (laughing). I want to be different. If show business could just manifest itself I could kick my foot through it and start it all over again. Someday, I would like to look back and say, here is the box set, from Truman Show to Ace Ventura to Eternal Sunshine and Lemony Snicket. It is more than anybody could ever ask for as far as diversity.

FW: Out of all your movies, which one has touched you the most emotionally?

JC: Ace Ventura, I'd have to say (laughing). Seriously, I think it was Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, not only the depth of emotion but the feeling of loss, and also the idea of being less accessible as a person on film, to hold back completely and let the audience come to you. It was a different kind of thing for me. I generally play fairly colorful characters that come out of the screen.

FW: Does the good commentary about Eternal Sunshine and Lemony Snicket motivate you to continue doing these kinds of movies?

JC: For me, it's all about the work, the moment on the set. There is no other place I would rather be than acting with other people, telling a story. I love it. So that is really what I am motivated by, in every respect.

FW: What makes you laugh?

JC: I laugh at mistakes. I can kind of see a joke coming.

FW: Can humor save the world?

JC: I don't think so but it has made it more fun. I don't kid myself thinking I am changing the world with my humor but I know that people can enjoy themselves for a couple of hours. For me, I would say sometimes, I am band-aid and sometimes I am a little bit of a cure but it's not going to change the world.

FW: It is true that this year you are getting your US citizenship?

JC: It is something that I treat with respect, because I don't want the Canadians to think that I don't love my place.

(FW: He answers questions looking straight in your eyes, as if he were looking for the right time to crack a new joke.

To know what he is like, it is enough to have seen him in any of his movies. He is just as funny. Just as distracted. And just as witty. He doesn't stop making grimaces, doing imitations and making all kinds of jokes.)

FW: Which one of the Jim Carreys that we see in the movies is the one who sleeps in your bed?

JC: I will never, ever reveal my secret. I don't know how to define myself. And hopefully I will never find out.

FW: Are you happy?

JC: I am like everybody. Are you happy? All the time? Happy all the time? In other words ... now I am not on any medication (he laughs).

(FW: At the height of his success, Jim Carrey suffered his own difficulties. He divorced his wife, Melissa Wormer. He married the actress, Lauren Holly, who had starred along with him in Dumb & Dumber, although they barely lasted 10 months. And when filming Me, Myself & Irene, he started another relationship with then unknown actress, Renee Zellweger. There was an engagement but they never made it to the altar.

He shows that he can also be a dramatic actor as in the movie Man on the Moon, The Truman Show or The Majestic, taking up again that certain sinister humor and a search for the Oscar with the new movie Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.)

FW: Were you inspired by anyone in your family for the Count Olaf character in the movie Lemony Snicket?

JC: Vocally, I was trying to get a little bit of an Orson Wells type thing going on, with a sprinkle of Count Dracula. I was trying to fashion him after a kind of bird of prey that waits on the beach until the nest is unguarded and then steals the eggs. Physically, I wanted him to look like the illustrations in the original book. And I turned out looking like my dad.

FW: Is it true that you would spend all day with your costume on when you weren't even filming?

JC: Yes. It is just a great odyssey. First of all, they shaved my head. And I had big long acrylic fingernails. I looked really freaky and that is okay because I have license to do that. I love transforming, it is like Christmas morning to me when you get in the makeup trailer.

FW: Did you improvise as well?

JC: There is a lot of improvisation and there are a ton of things that aren't in the movie, that are really very funny, but don't further the story. In Hollywood, they call it "killing babies," like when a baby has to die, but I didn't really actually kill babies, get that straight. I am talking about a figurative baby...a funny joke baby.

FW: The book series, Lemony Snicket, was the first to dethrone Harry Potter from the best seller's list. Do you have a contract to do more movies, like they are doing with the Harry Potter movies?

JC: Lemony Snicket and Harry Potter aren't alike at all. I don't have a contract signed but it's one I wouldn't mind doing again.

FW: What would your character, Count Olaf, say to children who want to go see the movie Lemony Snicket?

JC: Go, if you don't have anything better to do .... It isn't my cup of tea, but there is no accounting for taste.
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