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Does anything really consume you?
Jim Carrey: “The only thing that has ever consumed me is love from time to time. Feeling like, ‘What is it? How do I get it?’ All of those things have consumed my mind from time to time. My spiritual journey has been a good kind of thing I’ve been on. I guess some people would say I’m obsessed with it, but in a really good way. It’s just enjoyable. I don’t really have crazy obsessions about things.”
Joel Schumacher: “I think you are more seeking in that. I think you are a pupil, a student.”
Jim Carrey: “I think obsessions happen because you’re trying to understand something or some urge. Like in the film, I think it’s like trying to avoid something.”
Joel Schumacher: “Well, there are also magnificent obsessions and also more tragic, evil obsessions. So obsession can be a great thing or it can also destroy lives.”
Jim, you mentioned Jenny [McCarthy] earlier…
Jim Carrey: “Oh, I did it. (Laughing) I see. Can we just take some personal responsibility for the question you’re about to ask?”
Joel Schumacher: “You opened the door.”
Jim Carrey: “It’s your fault that I’m going to ask you something.”
Can you talk about being on the spiritual journey? Being with Jenny, do you feel closer to that good place you’re trying to get to?
Jim Carrey: “I feel that our relationship happened at a time that I am more ready than I have ever been in my life to have a relationship.”
Joel Schumacher: “This is the happiest I’ve ever seen Jim.”
Jim Carrey: “And we also encourage each other, and we’re also on the same path.”
Joel Schumacher: “And I’ve seen you when you’ve been really suffering in love.”
Have you ever considered getting a tattoo?
Jim Carrey: “No, no, no. I like being where I'm at and then I can go out and do anything I want. Add something or whatever.”
Even though Jenny liked it?
Jim Carrey: “There's plenty more she likes about me.”
Did you look at any characters from the past in order to play Fingerling?
Jim Carrey: “No, I didn’t really. I thought that if I was in that position, if I was that guy how I would see myself and how I would... Basically, it would bleed into your hair and into your eyes and into everything about you. The coat, all the choices are choices that somebody makes because what is going on in their spirit. You know? Every choice we make is based on that. The colors we wear – everything. It just bleeds into everything. It starts with a lie the person believes about themselves or the delusion they are living with, or the pain that they have kind of accumulated. Things they are not dealing with. It all creeps out in certain ways.”
Joel Schumacher: “I think it was more original than the noir cop. Because when you see a cop, especially in a black coat like that in a noir setting, you expect them to be the cynical, burnt out, alcoholic.”
Jim Carrey: “We didn’t want him to be a life hater.”
Joel Schumacher: “But since it is Walter’s delusion that has created this, I think the first time you see him is when he meets Fabrizia and you see one side of him. But when he goes and sees the suicide blonde that Lynn Collins plays so brilliantly, there is a real compassion because, of course, in Walter’s life his mother committed suicide. It’s the same actress who played his mother and the widow Dobkins and all that, because it’s all in his consciousness somewhere and subconscious. So, I think you can see him as seeing how much he wants for her to have a better life than what she is giving herself. I think that’s what is different about it. It’s not, ‘Life is shit. Everyone is shit. I’m on the take.’ And I think that’s the difference that Jim brought to it, because it had Walter’s spirit in it.”
Jim, did you play the saxophone at all?
Jim Carrey: “You are so lucky (laughing). I just really practiced some rudimentary things that I could do that would match the music, but I didn’t learn how to play the sax. I used to play the sax, oddly enough. There are parallels all over the place. My father used to be an accountant, okay? He played the saxophone in a band. He had an orchestra. He played the saxophone. So there were these parallels. I don’t know how many of them were in there.”
Joel Schumacher: “Tons. Yes, tons.”
Jim Carrey: “So, there were all these parallels going on anyway. I played in the school band but I forgot how to play it.”
Joel Schumacher: “I didn’t want to stop the movie for saxophone interludes (laughing).”
Jim Carrey: No, no. Nobody wants that.”
Joel Schumacher: “We had a lot of story to tell and the sax was one tiny little detail.”
Jim Carrey: “Exactly and I try to stay in decent shape always. I pride myself on staying at least a month away from really good shape.”
Joel Schumacher: “The only reason I asked Jim to play the Riddler is he was the only person who could have worn that green elastic suit.”
Jim Carrey: “That was on the thin side, that one.”
Joel Schumacher: “He did all his own stunts in Batman Forever because there is no one who can do Jim’s body language.”
Jim Carrey: “It’s the weirdest thing. There are so many times where I am in positions where we try to double me and things, and it can literally be the back of my body or the back of my head. And, ‘It just doesn’t look like him.’ (Laughing) I don’t know. There is something about my posture or something. I have no idea.”
