Why did Tommy Lee Jones hate the “buffoon” Jim Carrey?
Actors Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey famously worked together on the 1995 film Batman Forever. For that project, Carrey played the iconic role of The Riddler in the Joel Schumacher-directed, Tim Burton-produced movie, while Jones portrayed Harvey ‘Two-Face’ Dent. The film also saw a rare appearance for Val Kilmer as Batman, replacing Michael Keaton.
The pairing of Jones and Carrey was an absolute disaster, though, and the ever-serious Jones was in great contrast to the utter wackiness of Carrey. The film ended up marking the beginning of a deep hatred for Carrey by Jones, although Carrey views the whole ordeal with a comic eye.
In an interview on Norm MacDonald Live, Carrey explained how Jones came to dislike him. “That’s what Tommy Lee Jones said to me,” Carrey began. “That he couldn’t sanction my buffoonery. That’s when we did Batman.” It’s quite a brilliant thing to hear come second-hand from the mouth of Jones that he couldn’t “sanction” Carrey’s antics.
Things came to a head when Carrey unknowingly made dinner reservations at the same restaurant as Jones after a long day’s work. Carrey explained: “The maître d’ said, ‘Oh, I hear you’re working with Tommy Lee Jones. He’s over in the corner having dinner.’ I went over, and I said, ‘Hey Tommy, how are you doing?’ and the blood just drained from his face.”
“He got up shaking,” Carrey continued. “He must have been in a mid-kill-me fantasy or something like that. And he went to hug me, and he said, ‘I hate you. I really don’t like you.’ And I said, ‘What’s the problem?’ and pulled up a chair, which probably wasn’t smart. And he said, ‘I cannot sanction your buffoonery.'”
Perhaps there was a sense in Jones that he’d taken on a superhero film at the expense of doing some proper drama and had to put up with Carrey’s “buffoonery”. Carrey had, of course, originally been a comic but rose to acting fame in the early 1990s, taking the limelight away from Jones somewhat.
“I was the star, and that was the problem,” Carrey noted, even though he was keen to admit to Jones’ own excellence. “He’s a phenomenal actor, though. I still love him,” he added. “He might have been uncomfortable doing that work, too. That’s not really his style of stuff.”
Batman Forever had a brilliant cast, but two of its biggest stars clearly rubbed one another up the wrong way. Hopefully, it’s all water under the bridge now.
