If you were told to think about a famous celebrity feud, I’d bet Martin Freeman’s bitter row over Jim Carrey wouldn’t be the first to spring to mind.
But The Hobbit star Freeman had some very choice words to say when it came to Carrey’s performance in the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon, in which he played comedian Andy Kaufman. In 2017, a behind-the-scenes documentary about the film aired on Netflix, dubbed Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond.
In it, Jim Carrey insisted on method acting, making cast and crew call him ‘Andy’ even when the cameras were off. He spent four months in character, constantly taunting professional wrestler Jerry Lawler off-camera because of Kaufman’s real feud with him.
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When he was in character as Kaufman’s alter ego Tony Clifton, Carrey would insist on being called ‘Tony’ instead. Director Chris Smith praised his performance, gushing: “It just seemed like an insurmountable task to find somebody else that could have actually filled those shoes. Jim not only did a great job with the performance, but also honouring the spirit that Andy had in all of his work, and I think it’s really nice to see that reflected in this movie.”
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But one A-lister wasn’t happy with what he saw. Speaking on the Off Menu podcast, Martin Freeman branded Carrey “narcissistic”, “selfish” and said he “should have been fired” from the project.
He told hosts James Acaster and Ed Gamble: “I am a very lapsed catholic but if you believe in transubstantiation, then you’re going somewhere along the line of, ‘I became the character,’ no you didn’t, you’re not supposed to become the f***ing character because you’re supposed to be open to stuff than happens in real life because someone at some stage is going to say ‘cut’ and there’s no point going, ‘What does cut mean, because I’m Napoleon?’ Shut up.”
He added: “You need to keep grounded in reality and that’s not to say you don’t lose yourself in between action and cut but the rest of it is absolutely pretentious nonsense… It’s not a professional attitude. Get the job done man, f***ing do your work.
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“He should have got fired. Can you imagine if he had been anybody else? He would have been sectioned let alone fired, he would have been got rid of. It’s the ridiculous leeway given to some people.”
He then fumed: “It was the most self-aggrandising, selfish, narcissistic b****cks I have ever seen. The idea anything in our culture would celebrate that or support it is deranged, literally deranged.”
Freeman then called Carrey “deluded” and said he must think he’s a “guru” in a strongly worded rant. He went on: “We all get cushty gigs, we are very fortunate to get a pass in certain situations where other people wouldn’t, I understand that, but Christ, there is such a thing as pushing it.
(Image: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
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“I think that’s what that Jim Carrey thing looks like to me, at the very, very end, he says something that sort of is pertaining to his Christ-like self grandeur and makes me think at the very last second, is all this a wind up?
“Because, clearly, he’s a very funny person and he knows absolutely where ‘funny’ is all the time, but I think has he lost himself in this delusion of thinking he’s a guru or a fakeer because a few people do once you get the the top of the mountain, what you are you going to do then?”
He then fumed: “Jim, you should have paid more attention at school if you wanted to do something more important. I hope he was joking.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
