We Love You Jim Carrey

For his latest role Hollywood legend Jim Carrey stars in the incredible true story of gay con artist Steven Russell. in I Love You Phillip Morris. This amazing story tells of a former straight copper who - following a car accident - decides he's gay and live life to the fullest... which eventually sees him end up in jail. There he falls in love with sensitive soft spoken Phillip Morris, played by Ewan McGregor.

I believe that you didn’t get to meet the real Steven Russell, so where did the inspiration come from for this amazingly flamboyant performance?

Jim: I do like to push the envelope here and there….I think...you know I was not allowed to visit the penitentiary to meet him, of course I would have and may still after the experience, just because he’s such a fascinating human being. So I listened to recordings of him. Steve McVicker, the gentleman who wrote the book, went for me because he had a relationship (with him) and he was allowed at the prison and he did recordings for me, so it’s quite fascinating to listen to him, and to listen to what excited him, and to actually listen to his dialogue about the movie happening which was the inspiration of his life at that time . He was very excited about it you could tell and about the choice of Ewan for his lover, very excited.

Jim: He’s smarter than all of us. He’s dangerous in that way I guess. Never hurt a soul but in solitary confinement for the rest of his life. It’s incredible… an incredible story and he should be hired by the government. He’d do a better job in intelligence than they’ve been doing so far, as long as he was controlled… I think it would be a great job for him...Treasurer possibly!

I’d heard that in your whole career, just this script and the one for Eternal Sunshine for a Spotless Mind were the only two you’d read straight away and thought ‘I’m doing it’. Is that true?

Jim: There are very few scripts that come through where I feel that nothing really has to happen, that there already there and already realised…and this was one of them…one of three really; Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine and this. I had the same feeling I called my people and I said I don’t care if I get paid, I have to be in this movie, this is one of the ones.

How daring can it be for a well-known American actor to play a gay character?

Jim: Hmmm…I don’t really care…and I’m Canadian….no no no I don’t really care about a reaction if there’s a negative reaction...I care about doing a story about amazing and fascinating people. It’s unbelievable that it ever occurred and it’s real. It’s a true story, it’s a true story about love and someone’s relentlessness to find it and keep it

Jim: I want to play people, you know, human beings...you know… and this is an interesting human being. The bottom line is that the quest for love is everyone’s and he’s just another person… and especially when there are extremes involved when a person grows up feeling abandoned and unloved and it’s interesting to me what they do to compensate for that hole they think they have in themselves, or whatever it is…of course that has nothing to do with the gay part but it has to do with the fact that he finds the love of his life and it’s not still enough, he still has to have the two jet skis and the nice house and Phillip Morris is saying ‘wait, we’re there, we’re in nirvana, we made it,’ and it’s not enough.

I understand that you needed to lose quite a bit of weight for this role, can you tell us what that was like?

Jim: The process of losing that weight was pretty tough...I mean I’m really good at making adjustments that way but that was…we kind of had to plan around it as far as when we shot so that I could...you’ll notice I’m pretty skinny in some scenes… but the process boiled down to the last week or so I was really only having these little tomato drinks every once in a while, and I had water and I had supplements so I could stay alive but there was really nothing of substance…in the last two days I, you know before the main shots I just stopped eating completely and had a little taste of water…like and African runner or something like that.
Oh and one more thing, I was completely exhausted during that part of it, I was completely raw like an old man the last two days, just wandering around like an old man, no energy whatsoever.

With acting, I guess it’s always a bit like you’re wearing a mask - you’re always being funny and energetic, in which of your films can see the real Jim Carrey?

Jim: Every one of them…I mean it’s all me so, everything I do is me… if I go over the top it’s me, if I’m quiet it’s me…I’m all of that and I‘m so insanely lucky that I have stumbled into a life where I can be all of that and I can get a chance...and Luc (Besson) will allow me to make a movie like this…and believe that I can be believable.

Isn’t there one movie that’s more ‘Jim-like’ than all the others?

Jim: I can’t differentiate they’re all…the scripts are, I don’t know about you, but I feel the scripts find me when I’m in a place where I can understand what that person’s going through, it’s like magic…the one pops out that you are psychologically perfect for, that you understand at that time, I think.
I just want to say, if your character doesn’t have a mask then you’ve left out the eagle of your character, we all have a mask.

I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS will be in cinemas nationwide on March 17