Jim Carrey: "Tommy Lee Jones hated me"

[The Laughing Fish]

Jim Carrey lifts the lid on working with Tommy Lee Jones on Batman Forever...

Tommy Lee Jones has a reputation as an actor with intensity, who doesn't suffer fools - and sometimes not fools - gladly. And rumours had done the rounds around the time that Joel Schumacher was shooting Batman Forever that he and co-star Jim Carrey didn't get on particularly well for a start.

Turns out those rumours had some substance to them. Bluntly: they didn't.

Chatting on The Howard Stern Show, Carrey was asked directly whether they got along or not, and he said that "I was really looking forward to working with Tommy, but he was a little crusty. I think he was just a little freaked out because Dumb And Dumber came out on the same weekend as Cobb, and Cobb was his big swing for the fences and that didn't work out. And that freaked him out a bit".

In particular, Carrey recalled meeting Tommy Lee Jones for the first time. "I walked into a restaurant the night before our big scene in the Riddler's lair. I went up to say hi and the blood drained from his face, in such a way that I realised that I had become the face of his pain".

Carrey continued, saying that "he got up, kind of shaking, hugged me and said 'I hate you. I really don't like you'". When Carrey questioned him as to why, Tommy Lee Jones replied that "I cannot sanction your buffoonery"

"He did not want to work with me", Carrey concluded.

Carrey was on the show as he kicked off promotional duties for this winter's Dumb And Dumber To. Tommy Lee Jones isn't co-starring in that one, and you won't be surprised to hear that the pair haven't worked together since Batman Forever. We wouldn't bet a sweet wrapper on them doing so again...

Read more: http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/batman-forever/32699/jim-carrey-on-batman-forever-tommy-lee-jones-hated-me#ixzz3HWRr1Ahp

This isn't surprising, I heard that Jones has a prima donna reputation. Schumacher condemned both him and Val Kilmer for their bad behaviour while they were on set of Batman Forever, and promised to never work with them again. Regardless whether you like Schumacher or not, what does that tell you?

[Catwoman]

I love Tommy but I have heard too many times for it not to be true that he is such an insufferable grouch. To everyone. Cast, crew, media, fans. It's his world and damn anyone foolish enough to step close enough to him. Which is sad.

Jim on the other hand gets on my nerves a lot but I've heard he is very gracious and friendly and even a bit shy. I don't think I can blame him if he sort of acted out to annoy Tommy after a meeting like that. I would have walked into a meeting with all of them there, bent over, and done the Ace Ventura thing talking out of my ass going "Hi I'm Tommy Lee Jones." lol

And then Val, being so intense in his acting, it's no surprise him and directors don't get along.

I know the party line is that the studio wanted it made lighter than the first three (even Forever) but I wonder if B&R's tone and stuff had anything to do with Joel's fear of replicating any bit of the experience of making Forever lol

[riddler]

Joel Schumacher called Carrey a true gentleman and did end up working with him again on the number 23. I don't know if I trust him as a director but I do as a person, very credible actors including Kiefer Sutherland, Colin Farrell, etc have worked with him multiple times.

And that film does seem to the the one and only film Carrey had an issue with another actor. You can tell when he's interviewed, he's a very humble person.


I'm not sure about Jones.

[Edd Grayson]

TLJ is a good actor but his Two-Face doesn't quite work for me. He should've made him more serious.

[Catwoman]

It's like he tried to out Jim Carrey Jim Carrey lol.

I wish he had been more serious too. I want them to do a Harvey/Two Face like in the cartoon with the Big Bad Harv split personality.

Back to Jim I've heard like absolutely nothing bad about him as a man. Au contraire lol, I've heard that he is above and beyond on the friendly scale. I remember reading something on his IMDb page where some peeps saw him on a beach and walked up to say hi and he invited them to sit down and eat lunch with hm and his friends. Of course anyone can say anything on the internet but its like I said about the bad stories on Tommy, there are too many good ones. He may be a raving bastard in private but at least with the public he's Mr. Nice and I think that is one reason he doesn't get on my nerves as bad as he did, oh say, back around when I first joined here

[johnnygobbs]

I 100% agree with all the comments so far.

Jim Carrey is clearly a super-nice guy and the fact that Schumacher chose to work with him again, for the Number 23, is testament to the fact that Schumacher doesn't hold any of the on-set disagreements between TLJ and Carrey against the latter.

Also, TLJ is clearly very talented but he does have a reputation as something of a grouch who has been difficult with colleagues and the press alike.  It doesn't take anything away from TLJ's talent to say that I feel bad for the way he apparently treated Carrey on the set of Batman Forever.

Finally, whatever else one might think of Schumacher (and to be fair, he has made some very good films, it's just that his Batman ones aren't among them IMHO), he does strike me as a very genuine, honest kind of guy.  If he says that Kilmer and TLJ behaved like jerks on the set of 'Batman Forever' I'm inclined to believe him (he has more to lose by being honest), and likewise, I'm inclined to believe him when he vouches for Carrey.  All the other information about those actors back up Schumacher and Carrey's accounts.

[riddler]

Tommy Lee Jones was fantastic in the 90's but he was brutal in that film. Some people feel he tried to outdo Carrey, others felt he tried to mimic Nicolson.

Schumacher did also work with Nicole Kidnman again in Trespass. Carrey does seem to work with the same actors again more often than Kilmer and Jones do. Val Kilmer does seem like a very odd person and a method actor; as in the type of actor who borderline hits the other actors for real during fight scenes.

Carrey does seem do do more promoting and interviews than Jones does. Interesting most of Jones characters are grouchy types except for Two face.

[Slash Man]

If only he could have focused that intensity into his role as Two-Face.

It really is a shame that Val Kilmer had a falling out with Schumacher, but Tommy Lee just seemed to throw a bad attitude about everything.

I thought Jim Carrey did an excellent job as the Riddler, he was written and executed well. The final cut just brings out more of his goofy side. But I can accept that for a creepy stalker nut job. Two-Face was just a crazy guy, no duality or conflict. He was pretty much a tool to move along the Riddler. Call it blasphemy, but they could have had him replaced with a crime lord like Rupert Thorne to fit the same bill (and not come out so abruptly with his important backstory only glanced upon).

[The Laughing Fish]

I thought Jim Carrey did an excellent job as the Riddler, he was written and executed well. The final cut just brings out more of his goofy side. But I can accept that for a creepy stalker nut job. Two-Face was just a crazy guy, no duality or conflict. He was pretty much a tool to move along the Riddler. Call it blasphemy, but they could have had him replaced with a crime lord like Rupert Thorne to fit the same bill (and not come out so abruptly with his important backstory only glanced upon).

I would've liked Carrey's Riddler a lot more if he toned down the overacting. There were some good moments i.e. "I'll make you understand" and his obsession over Bruce Wayne, but the constant Dumb & Dumber/The Mask overacting is off-putting at times.

I agree that replacing Two-Face with a crime boss like Rupert Thorne might have been a better idea. In fact, maybe involving a lowlife thug like Tony Zucco could've worked since he was responsible for the Grayson murders in the comics.