Jim Carrey Interview

Jim Carrey delivers in the deliriously funny, romantic comedy, Yes Man.  Buzzine sits down with Carrey and finds out what really went on behind the scenes.

By: Sid Birdy

Sid Birdy: You have said that you liked playing the character of Carl in Yes Man because you can identify with him. How do you identify with him?

Jim Carrey: Well, I go in and out of being a shut-in. [Smiles] My social life goes in bursts, where I’ll be like, “I’ve got to get out and do something, man. I’ve got to do something else.” So I’ll plan a motorcycle trip down to Baja for nine hundred miles, and I’ll hang out with my friends for like a month, and then they wont see me for two months, three months, whatever. I won’t even answer any calls. I mean, I go back and forth, so it’s kind of like a seesaw effect. But I need both. I don’t think I’m ever going to have the kind of life or schedule that I can really have a steady way of doing things. Sometimes I get real busy and all I want to do is hide when I get home, and sometimes I’m not so busy and I want to reach out to friends and stuff. So I’m a lot of different things, but I understand this character, definitely. It was my idea to do the dead guy on the couch bit — that was kind of my own way of looking of myself sometimes -– dying alone. [Laughs]

SB: What is the stupidest thing you ever said “yes” to?

JC: C-Cadets. When I was, like, eleven years old, I joined C-Cadets, which is like a military version of Boy Scouts. They shave your head and they humiliate you, they yell at you and parade you around in front of the rest of the people you know in the town. You parade around with this uniform on. But, you know what? If I hadn’t of done that, I wouldn’t have known that I’m a useless maggot. [Laughs] So, saying “yes” always leads to something good.

SB: Most of your movies have really great messages within them. What would you like audiences to take away from Yes Man?

JC: Mostly just to have a good laugh and to feel good in their hearts. It’s not only a funny movie, but I think you really believe the love story and the friendships, so I think there is a lot to walk away with. But I guess, if there is a message, it’s just to engage in life, say “yes” more than you do “no,” maybe a little bit more than you did before, and then life kind of turns out alright. Usually, you regret the things you said “no” to.

SB: At the moment, the world’s economy is on a downturn and we’re in the middle of a recession.

JC: I’m not in a recession. [Laughs] I’m doing incredibly well. I just want to be honest, because I am really kicking ass. It’s so wonderful to have money.

SB: With so many bad things going on, though, is this a good time to release a comedy like Yes Man?Do you think moviegoers want to spend their money to laugh for two hours?

JC: You know what? I believe in them, and I believe that they can create their reality. And that weekend, they are going to go, “You know what? There is no recession. There is no problem. I’m going to spend my money. I’m going to go into the theater and I’m going to walk out with a smile on my face. And I’m going to say ‘yes’ to life, as is.” How’s that? [Laughs]

SB: So making comedies is a good thing during times like these?

JC: Sure, this is what comedy is about — it’s to laugh at the pain, laugh at the confusion, whatever, because you need it. Comedy is always welcomed, especially in times like this. What else do you want to do? You want to have something positive happen in your life. I think this is it. This is the answer to everything. Yes Man is the answer. [Laughs]

SB: Yes Man is a bit of a throwback to some of your earlier comedies. Do you like revisiting that type of humor?

JC: I like doing everything. I love it all, so it’s just being creative. I just like being creative, whatever way I have to do it. I just want to tell stories. It’s really the storytelling aspect that’s great, but it’s always fun to do something that’s… Ultimately, it’s not the money, it’s certainly not the fame because that’s a pain in the ass, but it’s really the person in that theater seat that you think about. When you sit in the rooms and write and you do all the things you have to do to make a movie, it really comes down to thinking about someone sitting in a theater seat laughing. And that’s it when you do a movie like this. It’s really that that gets me off — the idea of people actually laughing at what I’m doing, and maybe having something to think about when they leave the theater.

SB: What was going through your mind when you were getting ready to film the scene when you were bungee jumping off the (Colorado Street) bridge?

JC: A lot of thoughts of death and a lot of thoughts of crossing over to the other side were going through my mind. It was very strange, and I was thinking, “They do this all the time, this is no big thing. I’ve got it down, it’s no problem.” But then I got to the bridge, and that was intense enough, and I went, “Oh my God, what have I done? What am I doing here? Why did I agree to do this?” But when I got my feet up on the ledge, it was literally like a freight train going through my veins, through my entire body, the whole time –- until I jumped. It was insane. It was unbelievable and it made me realize… I actually had post-traumatic stress after it. For about a week after, I dreamed of hitting the ground, all those things. It was amazing. So those people that do it all the time, they are addicted to some kind of adrenaline rush like you can’t believe. They just can’t stop.

SB: In the bungee scene, you also talk on a cellphone. Did you do that in all one take, or did you do a reset take?

JC: No, I did it in the one jump. I’m always trying to complicate things. For some reason, at the last second, I’ll go, “Well, maybe I can get that in,” and stuff like that. I always make it really hard on myself, so I had to make myself a little Styrofoam phone so that it wouldn’t hit me on the lip or something. So I put it in my pocket and they said, “You’re not going to do the phone scene when you get to the bottom.” And I was like, “Yeah, I’ll do the scene.” [Laughs] So I gave it a shot and did it. Once I knew I was alive, I was fine.

SB: Would you bungee jump ever again? 

JC: No, I did that and I crossed it off my list. They didn’t want me to do it at all, and I said, “Well, I’m going to do it at least once in my life, so you might as well get it on camera.”

SB: In your own life, have you been more of a Yes Man or a No Man? 

JC: I would say “yes” even when I say “no.” Sometimes, saying “no” is saying “yes” to your own self-worth. Do you know what I’m saying? [Laughs] I like to enjoy life, I like to engage in life, so I would say that I’m a Yes Man. I said “yes” to so many things, from a sex change to gastric bypass surgery, so it’s always paid off for me. And I’ve kept the weight off.

SB: In your own life, you believe in the power of positive thinking. So was it tough making fun of a personal philosophy that you actually subscribe to?

JC: No, because everything can be made fun of. The most serious things are ripe for being made fun of. I have spiritual beliefs that I could literally go out and make an entire comedy routine about and tour as some sort of spiritual guru, but it kind of goes against the things that I actually believe in, so I’m always kind of caught in the middle. But we have to be able to laugh at ourselves. To answer your question, I had no trouble at all.

SB: What did you think about Zooey (Deschanel)’s singing and songwriting skills? 

JC: She blew us away with that stuff. We weren’t expecting that. When she was there on the set, it was like, “What? She is fantastic!” She’s amazing, and I loved all her singing.

SB: From having to learn fluent Korean to jumping off a bridge, was there any part of the fim you regret having to do?

JC: Well, I never said I regret shooting this project. [Laughs] Well, maybe there were a couple of moments. With the Korean, I just picked that up on the set the day of. I just hung out with a couple of Korean people on the set and that was it. I just riffed. [Laughs] Actually, it took about four weeks, every day, studying it phonetically. It was so difficult. It was one of the hardest things that I’ve ever done in my life -– to study Korean phonetically, to get it down. And then to have a Korean coach who is literally afraid to go back to Korea if I get it wrong. He’s going, “No, no, no, no, this is serious. Seriously, I will be hurt.” So I hope I got it right, because he was on me pretty hard. And it took awhile, but I’m real dedicated.

SB: In real life, what is the most truly spontaneous romantic thing you’ve ever done? 

JC: Everything I do is carefully planned and done by committee.

SB: What was it like to work with someone so different as Zooey?

JC: It was great because, if we were the same person, it would be a drag to watch and it wouldn’t be attractive for her at all. It was nice because she has a completely different tone than me, so it was great because our characters really worked well off of each other. It was fun. But also, I think you really believe it — you get the relationship. Like when we are in the barn and we have that moment, you really kind of accept it and can see why they love each other.

SB: What kinds of things are you doing this Christmas? 

JC: I’m bailing out the economy. No one is getting anything. Isn’t that enough to bail out the economy? No one should buy anything. Homemade presents are the greatest.

SB: At the end of the film, over the credits, there are some scenes of you and Zooey supposedly doing some Extreme Sports. Did you give any thought of rocketing down a mountain yourself?

JC: I tried, man. I stood in the suit really well. I tried to get one shot. It’s just literally the one shot when I first hit the deck, and we did a shot where I probably went forty feet and it was terrifying. It was so terrifying. It was ridiculous. It was so out of control. I don’t know how the guy did it. I saw it on the Internet, that’s how it got in the movie. I’m watching this rocket man that goes down the Swiss Alps at seventy miles per hour, and he’s passing cars and motorcycles and things like that. People in cars are going, “What the heck?” and getting whiplash. It was just the coolest thing I ever saw, so I said, “We have got to get these suits. We’ve got to do this.” But it was so terrifying. Zooey almost went off the cliff. Just standing there on roller blades was terrifying. Have you ever tried to stop on roller blades going downhill? It was just insane. And your chin is just inches from the ground. You try hard not to break with your chin.

SB: Carl is very depressed and needs a change in his life. What kind of advice would you give someone who is romantically down in the dumps?

JC: Kill yourself. Eat a ton of sweets and take your life. [Laughs] No. Let’s go with Option Two. I would say hang in there, invite some people over. [Laughs] I don’t know. Those times, I think, the devil works for God. That’s my concept . The bad times are supposed to force you into actually getting out of your shell and going out into the world and making friendships and having love. Those times in your life force you to become a better person.

SB: What was the hardest scene in the movie to do?

JC: It was the fight scene. It was like a hockey fight. At one point, I turned around and a girl was punching me in the head. It was insane. I caught an elbow in the eye, I cracked Bradley (Cooper) in the nose. We just went for it, because the fight looked so planned and staged — that Maclintock style of fighting. Sometimes you just have to go “Damn the torpedoes” and go for it. I broke my ribs early on so they had to take all of the physical I needed to do and stick it all at the end of the movie, because I had three fractured ribs.