The True Man Jim Carrey

Q: How much of an aphrodisiac is fame?

A: Fame is the by-product. It's not an end in itself. It's the thing you learn to put up with.

Q: And what about money? You've said that the pressure doesn't come from making $20 million for a picture, it comes from what people think of the $20 million. What do people think of it?

A: They think you're a lot richer than you are. I've bought a lot of traffic lights in this city. [Laughs]

Q: Besides paying taxes, what do you do with it?

A: I have a charity portfolio. I work a lot with terminally ill children. I have my family, friends I help.

Q: You said that you wouldn't be in this business if you weren't desperate, because it's too much of a hassle.

A: I don't want to get off on too much of a tangent about the drawbacks of show business, because everybody has their crap. It's just that there's a terrible fear of being publicly humiliated. Jimmy Stewart used to say, "If they found out who I really was..." And he's not someone you can picture having a secret life. But you know what? We all do. Everybody does. And if you're in this place of scrutiny, it's only a matter of time before they find out something that can embarrass you.

Q: So, if the president gets a blow job, is he cheating on his wife?

A: Yes, absolutely. Everybody knows he's cheating. So I don't get invited to the White House. The problem these days is that people are starting to think very puritanically, that our leaders have to be perfect. Nobody is perfect, we all have a character flaw.

Q: What's yours?

A: That I don't know what my character flaw is. The fact is, when John Barrymore was alive and running around with Errol Flynn, much worse shit was going on in Hollywood than ever happens these days. I mean, I go to parties, I'm in the inner sanctum of Hollywood, and basically people get together and have dinner and laugh, but nobody gets sodomized and thrown in the pool. It just doesn't happen. But there's such a media glut now, so many cable channels. There's a monster that needs to be fed.

Q: What's your take on entertainment journalism?

A: It's a necessary thing if we're to run our business properly. It's a good thing for business, to a certain extent. Except that now it's like the lawyers, there's too fucking many journalists. Sorry, man.

Q: How often do reporters with tape recorders misquote you?

A: All the time. It's not only that they misquote me, it's that they make the story plausible by putting in things that you actually said in other interviews. I'll sit with you for a legitimate interview and talk about what I want to talk about and half of the things that I say to you now will go into a Star article to make the things that are made up look truthful.

Q: You've complained that your whole life is spent fighting for space. How do you deal with that?

A: I have a nice house. The freedom to move around is not there, so at least make the cage really nice. And I took up riding motorcycles recently. I have a helmet on and I'm nobody.

Q: When you take it off are you instantly recognized?

A: Yeah. Eighty percent of the time I'm cool with people. I love that they love me, and that their kids love me. The other 20 percent, when I'm tired or wrung-out or feel self-loathing that day, I don't want you to come up and say you love me. I don't like myself, so why do you love me? That's when it becomes hard. I had a fender-bender accident on Sunset, when my daughter was with me. Not a big deal. I got out and dealt with the police, but somebody knowing he could get money for information called on his cell phone and the next thing you know, as I was leaving, a van was flying up beside me, cutting me off, with a guy hanging out the window with a long lens, trying to get a picture of me and my daughter with the smashed-up front of the car. I don't care what you say or how cool you try to be, it elicits a fight-or-flight response.

Q: We'll avoid pressing you for details of your two marriages, but what have you learned about marriage in general?

A: It's a good thing. Marriage is the only institution in life that forces you to realize who you are and what your flaws are. It's something that I want to master at some point, but I have not been good at it. I will want to be with someone. If you end up on your deathbed and you weren't able to have someone in your life to look at and say, "Guess what, you're the only one, and that's it, I'm here for you," then there's really something empty and horrible in that. But it's certainly hard in the climate that I live in to keep a settled thing going on.

Q: Are you by yourself now?

A: I always wanted to get to a place where I didn't have to fake it. Where I was living honestly enough that I wouldn't have to put on or be something. I'm getting better and better at living life and going, This is who I am right now and I'm OK. Yeah I'm alone, I'm not seeing anybody. I go out to a party and people go, "Hey, you're Jim Carrey, man, how come you don't have a supermodel?" Well, because I can't My be with anybody right now. I'm not ready for that. Because my heart's still in that place.

Q: How painful was it when you realized your marriage [to Lauren Holly] wasn't working?

A: Honestly, it gets harder every time. You don't stop loving people. You just can't be there. It's weird.

Q: Does that begin to scare you?

A: No. What messes with me is, whoever I meet they're gonna have things going on and I'm going to find out and will have to look through it. I still don't know what the hell it's all about.

Q: Did your parents really love each other?

A: Totally. It's the one thing they gave me that I so far can't give to my daughter. I've discussed that with her. I said, "I might never be able to teach you how to have a good relationship. You might have to learn that on your own."

Q: Did you resent that your father had trouble expressing his feelings until the end?

A: He was a nice man, sweet person, but he also had resentments caused by not being honest about his feelings. That's what happens when you don't say: You know what, you're hurting me now, fuck you! If you don't do that and you don't defend yourself, then you will resent yourself. I find that a form of cowardice. But my father's generation didn't go to therapists and they didn't have self-help sections to wallow in. The really virtuous thing was he always tried to make people feel happy. But you've also got to make yourself happy.

Q: What's the most romantic thing you've ever done?

A: I can't talk about it.

Q: That good, huh?

A: Yeah, really good.

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