The movie Jim Carrey called the worst thing he’d ever worked on: “We knew he was going to hate it”
Actors who grow accustomed to being paid tens of millions of dollars for a role can often exhibit signs of behaviour that could best be described as diva-ish, even if Jim Carrey had his reasons for the most miserable experiences of his career.
Playing the title character in Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas was an arduous undertaking, requiring the star to spend hours in the makeup chair daily to be transformed into his hirsute green alter ego. It was so taxing that Carrey regularly lost his temper and was even trained by government operatives familiar with how to withstand torture, so his misery was somewhat forgivable.
The two-time Golden Globe winner may have waited until after cameras had stopped rolling to distance himself from Kick-Ass 2, and even though he didn’t have any issues with the ultraviolent comic book adaptation during production, he completely disavowed the film and refused to support it along with the rest of the cast and key creatives when it was gearing up for release.
Two completely different movies and characters abhorred for two very different reasons but united through Carrey’s shared disdain. There was a third, too, which didn’t surprise the crew when they were fully aware from the beginning that the A-list megastar was virtually guaranteed to struggle with how the picture was being structured and shot.
It remains one of the finest performances he’s ever given and one of the best features he’s ever been involved with, which meant absolutely nothing to Carrey when he first pitched up to the set of Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to discover that he was woefully ill-prepared and ill-equipped for what was to come.
“Jim, he hated it,” producer Anthony Bergman admitted to Hollywood Gold of Gondry’s organised chaos approach working in direct opposition to the actor’s meticulousness. “We knew he was going to hate it. He’s the biggest star in the world, in control of every set, and here we were, pulling that part away.”
Things got so heated at one stage that Bergman recalled how “he would storm out and scream at me” when things continued to go against the way he wanted them done. “He called me all sorts of things, and I would just be there to absorb it,” he said. “He’s like, ‘This is the worst set I’ve ever been on; I don’t know what the fuck is going on.”
The producer “knew that Jim was not going to be entirely comfortable with the way we were shooting,” which became an understatement. Thankfully, Carrey eventually got to grips with Gondry’s style and forged a strong connection with the filmmaker, which paid off handsomely when Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind emerged as a critical, commercial, and awards season favourite that’s firmly enshrined in the cinematic consciousness as a 21st-century classic.
