The Capra Redemption Part One

By Paul Zimmerman     December 21, 2001

We've seen Jim Carrey talk out his butt, blow smoke rings out his nose and give mouth to mouth to a cow. Can we take seeing him act standing virtually still? In his new film The Majestic Carrey does just that in his craziest performance yet: Straight.

Playing blacklisted screenwriter Peter Appleton, Carrey gets to tap into his Jimmy Stewart side in a heartfelt drama set in 1951 that's director Frank Darabont's ode to Frank Capra. A story of people's perceptions, notions of what makes a man a hero and standing up for what is right, The Majestic is also a valentine to the movies, with the plot revolving around the revival of a run down theater in an idyllic small town. Carrey, decked out in '50s garb and beatific smile, gets to (quietly) go from amoral Hollywood player to confused amnesiac and from romantic lead to reluctant hero. It's heartfelt stuff ending with a big Mr. Smith Goes to Washington styled speech and all wrapped in a borderline sentimentality that will either have you swoon or wretch.

Ever since

Carrey's sudden rise to fame in the mid 1990's he's been rather press shy so when it was announced he was ready to promote his new film naysayers figured this was his bid for the brass ring that has eluded the 20 million dollar man: the Oscar. "It would be tremendous," a relaxed Carrey said recently while promoting the film at Beverly Hills' Four Seasons Hotel. "There's no question about it, it would be a sweet thing. I have so much in my life that I hesitate to go into the 'wanting this' category. Feel like I'll get struck dead or something. I'm so lucky. Yeah, I'd love it."

If Carrey is trolling for Oscar he picked a good fisherman as his captain, Darabont's two films The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile were both Academy (nominated anyway) favorites. Yet, while Carrey's quiet calm lulls reporters into a false sense of security, he can quickly revert back to his funnyman self as he closes his Oscar remarks with, "I'm fully prepared to wait for the Lifetime Achievement Award. I hope it happens in 80 years."

Having beaten

the box office senseless with hits like Dumb and Dumber and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, one might wonder why Carrey would pick such a potentially risky project as The Majestic. He answers quickly that the appeal itself was "Riskiness." Smiling while speaking in a soft polite tone he adds it's always that way for him. "I like to go to new places where people don't expect me to go. I show up and they go, 'What are you doing here?'"

And for fans shocked to see him in a role so straight it makes his other dramatic foray The Truman Show look slapstick, he says, "I've decided that I have fans that are loyal to me no matter what I do. They're out there somewhere and the project will find them. That's all I can do."

Not that he was always so sure. Confessing some fear, Carrey says in The Majestic "I was doing less but at the same time the hardest part was trusting that and that was the tough part. I'd go to Frank [Darabont], 'Jeez, it's like nothing is happening.' And he'd say, 'I'm seeing worlds of things going on here.' And there were many levels of work going on." Kidding again, Carrey then says, "I'm always this close to breaking down and sobbing."

Unlike the

last time most of us press folk saw Carrey, during a mock Tony Clifton press conference gone awry to promote the Andy Kaufman bio-pic Man on the Moon, the actor now seems at peace with himself. "I think I'm a very full human being," Carrey says with some quiet pride. "I have a lot going on. I'm joyful and I'm in agony and I'm experiencing all the things human beings experience but the great thing about what I do is I can express them and actually say it. I used to be so afraid that if I told someone I had a feeling that they'd think I'm broken and useless. And my experiences [are] starting to tell me that people are funny and really refreshing and a gift in themselves. It's a common ground. Rather than, 'I'm a super being, I'm a super dude.'"

Be sure to check back soon for part two of CINESCAPE's Jim Carrey profile, as the actor further discusses THE MAJESTIC and what other projects he's currently working on.