What was interesting during the movie was that these psychic things were happening. Of course, I was pouring a lot of what I've gone through into it as much as I could, but things like when I was in the second grade, I had a teacher who came into school and she was an Irish lady who said, “If I pray to the Virgin Mary and ask for anything I want, she gives me anything I want.” I'm sitting in the back of the class going, “Hmm...” So, I went home and I prayed to the Virgin Mary for a bicycle - for a green, Mustang bike. Two weeks later I won a green - I didn't ask for a green bike - but a Mustang bike. I won a green Mustang bike in a raffle I didn't enter two weeks later. A friend of mine put my name in to a sporting goods store and I won the bike. That bike showed up in the movie without me even [mentioning it], in the scene where the rain starts and I start trying to bring her back to when I grew up in the memories.
“Row, Row, Row Your Boat” is a big thing for me, too. I have it in the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater. I used to sing that on my aunt's porch when it rained, watching the squirrels scatter. Isn't this a homey and nice story? A fireside chat. That's how it is in Lake Woebegone.
The Mustang bike, when it showed up that day, I was so excited because this is how my life is. It's like, “Wow! Okay, so I'm going back into my past and here's the magical Mustang bike!” The whole thing was the exact bike I had and I didn't do it.
You had nothing to do with it?
Nothing to do with it. So I got to speed off on my Mustang bike from memories past.
Did you keep the bike?
No. No, I didn't. No. I have a Harley. That, I prayed for.
Looking at your recent dramatic roles – “The Majestic,” “The Truman Show” and this - it's about a loss of memory, it's about a false memory, it's about an erasure of memory. Why do you choose so many films with that theme?
You know, truth be told, that didn't even occur to me when I read this script. It wasn't about memory. It was about being erased. It was a different perspective on it. It was about how it would feel to be erased. That was the strongest pull for me. That's a heavy feeling. That's what hit me with the script. When he finds out that she's erased him, it's just a brutal thing to hit probably anybody's ego, but a male ego especially.
I loved the idea that the memories went in reverse. There were so many things that made it different than your normal losing-your-memory movie. I love the clunky, sci-fi aspect of this movie. It doesn't take it over, it's just a function within it. It's interesting.
Some people have started making the distinction between the goofy Jim Carrey roles and the more serious Jim Carrey roles. Do you make that sort of distinction when you look at scripts?
No. They come as they come and when something like this comes by, you just jump on and that's all there is to it. There's no question about it. Anybody would be lucky to be part of this. It'd be great if it laid out in a certain pattern that worked for the long term. Clint Eastwood had a great pattern in his life. He did commercial things that appealed to a wide audience and then he did things that challenged them.
PAGE 3: Jim Carrey on Michel Gondry, "Lemony Snicket," and "The Six Million Dollar Man"
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