Jim Carrey: Smart & Smarter

I have heard that Carrey can pitch a conniption fit with the best of them. Is he wrestling with this too? "One of my biggest problems is that I can't take criticism very well," he asserts. "Not criticism of my work--that keeps me level--but personal criticism, like how I relate to people. Those things can send me into an emotional tailspin." And what does such a tailspin look like? "It looks like me punching a statue and breaking my knuckle. Me wanting to go into a dark room and stay there for three days. Something inside of me feels like shit when somebody tells me I'm not behaving correctly. I'm in a good place right now. I mean, I'm not the Ritalin Kid. But I have dark moods--yeah, I have all the dynamics someone needs to have in this business." Well. I don't know about you, but I'm writing off the Holly relationship.

In which case, I feel compelled to ask if Carrey is still raising his spirits occasionally with Prozac, which he told me two years ago he took now and again. "I don't need it quite as much," he declares. "I'm enjoying my different states of mind. I try not to indulge in any of them for very long, but there definitely is a time to brood, a time to be completely joyful, a time to be out of control. Buddhists would tell you, 'Stay in the middle of the wheel,' rather than fly around the outside, up, down, all over. That's a difficult concept for me because I feed off highs and lows. That's my business, you know? Nobody wants to go to a movie to see somebody who is in the middle of the wheel. They want to see somebody get desperate. I'm trying to find the balance."

If the box-office receipts for Carrey's last five movies are any indicator, audiences want to see him get intensely, cosmically silly. For awhile it was hip to put down Carrey as a kind of unholy offspring of some mythical gang bang involving Betty Hutton, Jerry Lewis. Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams. Slowly, though, the brainiacs came around. No less a critic than Pauline Kael emerged from retirement to praise Dumb & Dumber.

Newsweek's Jack Kroll compared Carrey not unfavorably to such movie comedy giants as Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. Then again, plenty of people prefer to slam Carrey for contributing to the dumbing of America. "It pisses me off sometimes," he says, kicking the table leg by accident. I think. "I mean, not to the point where I'm losing sleep over it, but, look: comedy's comedy. I know there are critics who think that I'm an idiot. I would say to those critics, 'There's a person here who is growing every day. If I'm still doing Dumb & Dumber at 50, then you can give me shit." It bothers me that somebody would accuse me of dumbing America, because I'm not a teacher. I want to say, 'You educate America if you think it's so dumb. I just want to make people laugh.'"

Moving on to a different area of criticism, I ask Carrey whether he thinks he is, as alleged, undirectable. Did that have anything to do with the departure of the first director of the Ace Ventura sequel? "I love direction," he insists. "I'm completely directable. I don't want to be the one solely responsible. I'm a spewer, I keep myself alive by changing things, but I'm also never completely sure of where I am. I can try 50 different ways of doing something till I feel I'm insane. I want someone to say, That one, not that one.' you know? I read an article recently where Steven Spielberg said that if he recast Jaws today, he would put me in the Richard Dreyfuss role and sit on me. You know what? I would love to be sat on."

Sure, but doesn't he ever get vocal? "OK, I've stood up in the middle of the scene and gone, 'I'm exhausted. I cannot do this anymore. I don't care what happens. Sue me.' Or else I'm in a terrible mood one day, which happens from time to time, because it's such an emotional business. I'll call later on and say to whomever, 'Don't take it personally.' People see that I'm working really hard. I don't think anyone can accuse me of being unreasonable."

Speaking of unreasonable, I'd heard that the Batman Forever set was a hotbed of egos, insecurities and upstaging. Any war stories, particularly given the close proximity of such prickly pears as Val Kilmer and Tommy Lee Jones? "I want to be challenged," Carrey declares. "The way to grow is to have someone tell you, 'Well, OK, Tommy Lee Jones is going to play with you,' so it's like. 'OK, Desperate Boy, you're on.' It's good to have a little fear. That was one of those scary moments where you go. "Well, this is the big leagues now. Put up or shut up.' Tommy messed with me a little bit. The night before my biggest scene in the movie he said some pretty nasty things to me, along the lines of 'You're from cabaret and I'm a trained classical actor.' Whatever, That's the business. I'm just fine."

Maybe it's some less-than-tender memories of Tommy Lee, but I notice Carrey eyeing the pistol on the table. "Got one of those, now that you're way more famous than the last time we talked?? I ask. "I know how to shoot a gun, yeah," he asserts. "I don't like guns. But I have people who can carry guns. And do carry them. Luckily, I don't get a lot of nutsy people, though. For the most part, knock on wood, I've never had somebody get really goofy with me."

Only for the most part, huh? "Well, I've had situations where crowds were pushing out of control," he says. "Lauren and I went to Vegas to see the 20-second Tyson fight, and that was one of the worst security systems I ever witnessed. Shaquille O'Neal was trapped in a little boutique in the hotel lobby with people packed against the glass. Lauren and I had seven guys around us with their heads down, going, 'Go-go-go-go-go!" Lauren was getting kicked, her hair pulled--people were just trying to get something of her, you know? It was insane and scary."

What about the Brentwood mansion in which he lives, not far from the scene of the Nicole Brown Simpson/Ron Goldman murders, a crime site by which flows a constant stream of rubberneckers, crime junkies and just plain freaks? "Not sorry I bought it," he declares. "I don't have any real trouble there. I have security at the house and I've got a big Great Dane too. Say what you want about putting in all the alarms, a Great Dane is the best security going."

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