The Carrey

Arguably one of the most popular comedic actors of our time, Jim Carrey has starred in numerous both critically and publicly acclaimed movies. When it comes to acting, he has a great amount of talent for both serious and extremely bizarre roles.

Carrey is a funny guy, yes. Personally though, I'd like to smack him across the head.

So if you haven't heard by now, Jim Carrey has taken back his support of the movie Kick-Ass 2. Carrey himself stars in the movie as a militant weapon-toting character called Colonel Stars and Stripes. Carrey stated on his twitter recently that filming for Kick-Ass 2 had ended before the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre where several children and staff members where either shot to death or severely injured. Some of them crippled permanently. After the massacre, Carrey apparently decided that such violent movies as Kick-Ass 2 would be insensitive towards the victims and therefore he took back his support of the movie.

Now, this could have ended there. Carrey could have pulled back his support of the movie in light of the horrors at Sandy Hook, people (myself included) would have accepted his decision and that would be the end of it. However, the Sandy Hook shootings took place in December of last year. Kick-Ass 2 is set to release this coming August. Photography for Kick-Ass 2 ended in November. What this means is that Carrey has known how violent the movie was going to be for several months, known about Sandy Hook for several months but only NOW does he decide to pull back his support of the movie. This my friends, is what we in the business call a load of crap.

What this screams for me is that Carrey has felt this way for several months, but being the hypocrite this would make him, he waited for the paycheck to get passed. Thanks for the money suckers, Your movie sucks!

So why is this a problem? Why am I upset that a single actor suddenly changed his mind on a project - even if it is a project I have been looking forward to? Fuck it, right? Well, here's the thing. Mr. Carrey is, as I said, a very popular guy. Had it been a lesser known actor, I probably wouldn't have cared. But Carrey is likely to to completely ruin the sales for the movie on his name alone. Already mainstream media have printed articles with titles like "CARREY LEAVES VIOLENT MOVIE". Sure, you and I are reasonably invested in movies in general and we probably already decided whether or not to watch this movie. But the average viewer? The kind of people that only watch movies once in a blue moon? Let's just say that it's not going to be pretty.

I'm not saying that the average viewer isn't intelligent. Sure enough, they can be just as intelligent as anything. But unless you have a vested interest in movies you most likely aren't going to hear both sides of this argument. Most people will read the article "Carrey leaves violent movie" and decide not to watch it because an actor they like decided it was bad news. This movie is going to lose needed viewership because of a combination of ignorance and outrage. I can already hear the outraged soccer moms scream in disgust as I type this article.

Now, this isn't just about the movie losing sales. Carrey, to me at least, is also kind of insulting the viewer in taking back his support of the movie. What he is basically saying by doing this is that violence in media leads to violence in real life because the average viewer, in his eyes, isn't able to tell fantasy from reality. He'll still take money for appearing in it, so fuck that. 

So how can he win back my respect? By standing by the decision he's taken. Simply going back on his own words and saying "Oh wait, I changed my mind, go watch Kick-Ass 2 everyone!" would piss me even more off. One thing is making a stupid decision, that's annoying enough as it stands. An entirely different matter is going back on your own word due to peer pressure. That's just spineless. 

Mr. Carrey, You've fucked up. Now stand by it and stand tall. I'll keep defending your movies to my dying breath, but please take another minute to consider what you're doing and WHEN you're doing it. The when is sometimes, and especially in this case, more important than the what or the how.

- Later days.