Carrey was familiar with the number 23 phenomenon before shooting The Number 23. In fact, Carrey’s production company is now called JC23 and Carrey says he changed his company’s name even before he knew there was a script for The Number 23.
Together with his onscreen wife and director Joel Schumacher, Carrey talked to the press about the phenomenon and working on The Number 23.
How did you learn about the number 23 phenomenon?
Jim Carrey: “Well you see it started out for me, a friend of mine in Canada kind of handed it down to me. He was seeing it everywhere, added up license plates, doing all these things… He had a book full of 23 phenomenons and he handed it to me. I said he was crazy and then I started seeing it everywhere. And then one day, a few years later after it had entered my life in a big way and I was driving my friends crazy, somebody handed me the 23rd Psalm, a book on the 23rd Psalm, the valley of the shadow of death, living without fear basically, knowing you’re taken care of, so I thought that was great progression from Pit Bull Productions, which is kind of like grabbing hold of life and just not letting it go, to not sweating it.
So I named the company that, and then I explained it to a friend and he said, ‘Well, I just read script called The Number 23.’ And I said, ‘I have to see this.’ I read the script, I was compelled by it, and I was freaked out actually because the first page of the script was actually originally me trying to capture a pit bull - the Pit Bull Productions to JC23 was not lost there. And it went on like that. Then he read it and I came back into the room -a friend of mine I gave it to - and I had come back into the room. He had turned to the 23rd page and was circling every 23rd word. He was looking for a code. And that’s what I want to do with the audience with a movie like this. That’s the fun of it.”
Virginia, had you heard of the phenomenon?
Virginia Madsen: “Yes, because I think all that stuff is really fun, the shows on the Discovery Channel about ghosts and the yeti and UFOs, which I totally believe in, so I’d heard about it. But I didn’t know how vast it was until really the first day of production. I’d sort of been online and I came in and there were these beautiful, beautiful roses from Jim, these enormous - with this romantic note, we’re going to have, ‘To my beautiful wife…’”
Jim Carrey: “I just didn’t want any trouble.”
Virginia Madsen: “And you know I was so gullible I was like, ‘Oh, I love him now.’ That’s all it takes. But then on the table there was this book about this thick with all the fun facts about the number 23, just in case you’re a doubter. So I was like, ‘Oh my God.’”
Jim Carrey: “And then it began. Her son started picking out things. Her son was sitting there all day long trying to figure out the phenomenon on the set. He pointed out that our names together were 23 letters (referring to himself and Virginia) and our names together (his and Schumacher) are 23 letters.”
Virginia Madsen: “And it’s [Joel's] 23rd film."
How many times have you run into the number 23 recently?
Jim Carrey: “I came here a couple of days ago and was with my assistant, and I wanted people to see what I see everyday. So basically I began saying, ‘Just get your camera phone out and just start taking pictures whenever see it.’ This was the first thing was a tow truck right besides us with the number 23 on the side of it. I didn’t photo shop this. I don’t know why that is, the number 23 on the side. I guess it’s the 23rd truck of its fleet. So, I got them to take a picture of that. Then I looked to the car in front of us and that license plate started with the number 23. Then I came to the hotel here and I was in 1223. Then I went out on my balcony and the address adjacent to the hotel is 323, if you want to see it when you leave. And then I ordered some breakfast…(laughing). I mean, c’mon! I don’t think that’s a coincidence. It’s freaky. It’s eerie. Okay, that last one was a joke, but the rest of them are real.”
Joel Schumacher: “A lot of them in the movie are real. There is a website where people for years have been taking photos of the number 23 all over the planet. Why they do this, we don’t know. But I mean, you’ll see there are a lot of great photos of it. Some of them are in the movie.
The afternoon that Jim called me and said, ‘Are you going to do this movie The Number 23?’ And I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘If you do it, I’ll do it.’ And I said, ‘If you do it, I’ll do it.’ And that night I was really excited. It was about midnight and I’m brushing my teeth and I’m thinking, ‘Boy, I’ve made a lot of movies. This would be my 20th movie and Jim and I have been wanting to work together [again].’ And I thought, ‘Gee I wish it was Number 23.’ And I’m brushing away and then the other side of my brain goes, ‘What about your three television movies?’ (Laughing) ‘Wouldn’t this be your 23rd directing job?’ I remember I had a houseguest and I ran across the house and I knocked on the door and I said, ‘Ely! Guess what? This will be my 23rd film.’ And he went, ‘Um, yeah, okay man.’ So I couldn’t wait for the next morning to tell Jim.”
