The True Man Jim Carrey

Q: Why was losing your virginity before 16 so important to you?

A: I don't know. It was an all-encompassing need. I said, I cannot get to the age of 16 without doing this. I have to. It was all I thought about.

Q: The girl was 25--did the event match the anticipation?

A: It was great. I remember Styx's The Grand Illusion was playing. How interesting: the grand illusion.

Q: Let's talk about people whose work you like. Wasn't Dick Van Dyke someone you admired?

A: I loved "The Dick Van Dyke Show," used to watch it religiously. He was one of my idols. He was animated and a down, but at the same time he could make you feel, too.

Q: Whose films do you prefer: Woody Allen or Mel Brooks?

A: Woody.

Q: Albert Brooks or Steve Martin?

A: That's tough. The Jerk really drove me nuts, but Albert Brooks is one of those guys who everybody, including Steve Martin, would sit back and go, "Jesus Christ, this guy's from another planet."

Q: Chevy Chase or Eddie Murphy?

A: Eddie, I guess.

Q: Billy Crystal or Bill Murray?

A: Bill because he has more of an edge and is dangerous, but I like Billy.

Q: Bob Hope or Cary Grant?

A: Cary Grant.

Q: The Three Stooges or the Marx Brothers?

A: Marx Brothers.

Q: Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy?

A: Hmmm, I don't have an opinion. I appreciate them, but I don't watch them.

Q: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis or Monty Python?

A: Well, Monty Python, in the way that they came out with something completely different, to coin a phrase. But Martin and Lewis made me very happy.

Q: Time described you as a goyish Jerry Lewis with less ego and more self-esteem.

A: Oh God. I don't know Jerry Lewis, but it was a kind of Renaissance time when he was doing his thing. Maybe he does have a big ego, but he's also done some of the absolute best, most brilliant downing ever done on film. I don't mind if somebody has an ego when he's giving you the goods. He made me laugh--gut-laugh.

Q: Who else makes you gut-laugh?

A: Sometimes it's the most outlandish, juvenile thing that will make me laugh. "South Park" makes me laugh because it's ridiculous.

Q: You got to play a Batman villain--who's your favorite Batman: Keaton, Kilmer or Clooney?

A: I think Keaton was great. He overcame huge odds to do that well.

Q: How serious was the gallbladder operation you had during Dumb & Dumber?

A: I'm still pissing blood, man.

Q: Are you?

A: No. Just wanted to put that out there. Carrey's pissing blood. [Laughs]

Q: Did it scare you?

A: No, it wasn't a major deal. The press had me delusional and talking about Vietnam. Whereas, I got out of the car, walked in, got my gall bladder taken out and came home.

Q: What do you watch on TV?

A: I watch A&E's Biography, American Justice, Public Enemies, MTV, E!, Discovery. I just watched a show about black bear attacks. I went to Alaska during this last break with a friend. We flew into the wilderness where all the grizzly bears are, and I have a videotape of me 30 feet away from a grizzly bear that was circling me. I was amazingly calm, vocalizing, "Hey bear, hey bear," letting him know that we knew he was there. I thought, What a joke it would be to be mauled to death by this bear when I'm Ace Ventura. What a great way to go out.

Q: If you could dine with any group of people who have been featured on A&E's Biography, who would you choose?

A: Harry Houdini. Benjamin Franklin. Gandhi, I suppose. Jesus.

Q: What would you ask Jesus?

A: That whole turn-the-other-cheek thing, what's that about? That's the difficult thing in life. Forgiveness is the ultimate. I've really focused on that lately. And the saying "Judge not lest you be judged" has hit home with me, because the harder I am on every one else, the more brutal my own standards become.

Q: You once said your worst nightmare would be to end up in a sitcom called Jim's Place, where you're a cop from outer space working with a cop in Chicago. Think John Lithgow views 3rd Rock from the Sun as a nightmare?

A: [Laughs] No. At certain points in an artist's career you need certain things--that show was a perfect thing for John Lithgow to get out of his serious place and have some fun. There probably will come a time when I won't be viable in films anymore and I'll go into a TV show, because I'll want to do something. Or else I won't. Maybe I'll do something completely different with my life.

Q: If a UFO landed, would you go?

A: Yeah, I'd have to. But I'd want that return ticket stamped.

Q: If you could live inside a painting, which would you choose?

A: Marc Chagall, the one of the lovers flying. That's what I would choose for myself. I'd probably end up in a Francis Bacon, tearing my eye out.

Q: What's more important, your life or your work?

A: I don't know how much is my life and how much is my work and where the two are separated. This may sound chauvinistic and unpopular, but I think that men identify themselves with their work. The hunting, killing, bringing-home-the-bacon thing goes back a long way. Past people burning bras.

Q: If you could do a dramatic role in the adaptation of a classic novel, what novel would you choose?

A: Something heavy. Dostoyevsky. Crime and Punishment. I'd make a good Raskolnikov. The Brothers Karamazov. You know what it would be? Howard Roark. The Fountainhead. Ayn Rand. That book messed me up bad.

Q: Besides Andy Kaufman, is there any other contemporary figure you would like to play?

A: I'd like to do something about Chet Baker. He was the James Dean of jazz. A guy like that, you probably wouldn't want to be around him in a million years, but there's something beautiful inside him.

Q: Any director you'd like to work with?

A: I'd love to do something with Scorsese. Hopefully I won't have to bash somebody's brains in.

Q: Do you ever worry that you have too many ideas?

A: No. I lose too many ideas. I'm not as good at writing them down as I am of thinking them up.

Q: What's your favorite music?

A: I have a wide range of taste. I like Verve. Love Tom Petty. A lot of great women artists out there. Sarah McLachlan. I like baroque classical music--it's really good for your brain and all your body systems. They've done studies with plants in different rooms: one without music, one with rock and roll, one with baroque classical. The rock and roll music ones withered and died a horrible death, which is what you want from rock and roll music. The ones without music grew OK. The ones with baroque classical grew three times as big as anything and towards the speakers.

Q: Based on your opinion that nobody is interesting until they've had the shit kicked out of them, who's the most interesting person you know?

A: Martyrs are the people I'm most drawn to, because they're the ones who claim to have the answers and wind up with head wounds.

Q: How much shit do you still have in you that has yet to surface?

A: Tons of stuff. I hope I'm only scratching the surface, because life is long.

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Lawrence Grobel interviewed Richard Gere for the November '97 issue of Movieline.

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