Jim, how are you preparing to play Scrooge in this new A Christmas Carol?
Jim Carrey: “Ebenezer is such a great thing for me because, again, I get to play all kinds of different roles in the film. And first of all, the process is so fascinating. You're literally in an empty warehouse with cameras around you. And you have maybe a frame of a fireplace, or something like that. And then you rehearse and they go, ‘Can we take this away?’ And you're sitting on a chair. You have to create the entire world in your head. And not only that, but you're working with other actors and you're in this ridiculous mo-cap suit with balls all over it, and a hat with pincers that come down, with cameras in your face right here. And so the real work of it is transcending all of this – the lack of stimuli and this stimuli that's right in your face. You have to transcend all of it and create the reality of the piece. And also, it's kind of a classical version of A Christmas Carol. Oh, it is, very much. And so I'm playing Ebenezer Scrooge at four different ages. So there's a lot of vocal things, a lot of physical things I have to do. You know, not to mention doing the accents properly.”
With an English accent?
Jim Carrey: “With English accents and Irish accents. I'm also playing past, present, future - the ghosts.”
All of the ghosts?
Jim Carrey: “Yeah. So there's a lot of really wonderful work in it and challenge in it. And plus, I want it to fly in the UK, you know? I want it to be good and I want them to go, like, ‘Yeah, that's for real.’ You know? So we were very true to the actual book.”
My favorite book.
Jim Carrey: “It's beautiful. It's an incredible film. And if you're lucky, at some point in your life you have that kind of Christmas Carol moment, you know? I certainly have, where things were kind of going south, and I had the opportunity to see how horrible things could have gotten without them actually going there. I can't get into specifics but I had my ghost of Christmas Future, you know, at a certain point in my life, that I went, like, ‘Oh, wow. Okay. I gotta really start caring about the right things here.’ And it's just a fantastic story. It's a fantastic story. Beautiful literature.”
Is that being released next year?
Jim Carrey: “That will be 2009, actually. Christmas, 2009.”
Are you still going to do the Tim Burton project?
Jim Carrey: “I don't know. I mean, that's…it's definitely still in the works. Maybe a little ways off. But we're still talking about it.”
So what's your project after this?
Jim Carrey: “After Christmas Carol, I'm doing a film called I Love You Phillip Morris. Yeah, about a gentleman who fell in love with his cell mate in Texas and escaped from prison four times to try to find ways to get his lover out of prison. It's an out-there concept.”
