(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sunday 10 November 2024, 2:45 PM, United Kingdom
Jim Carrey is known to take things too far in preparation for his films. Take his role as Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon as a prime example. Carrey famously took on the role, losing all sense of himself and effectively becoming the late comedian. He even met Kaufman’s real daughter and remained in character as her dead father. This fantastic illusion is chronicled in the Netflix documentary “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond.”
This wasn’t the only time the Truman Show star went a little deep. In 2007, Carrey reunited with longtime Batman & Robin boss Joel Schumacher to produce the psychological thriller The Number 23. Based on a real phenomenon surrounding the number, the film revolves around a man who becomes obsessed with these numbers, believing they hold some great things. importance in his life, and spirals out of control as a result.
Speaking with Indie London, Carey detailed how he also lost himself to the idea that 23 carries some mysterious properties. “A friend of mine said one day, maybe 15 years ago, that I see 23 people everywhere,” he recalls. “When you said what?” “He started pointing it out to me – license plates added to it, people’s birthdays and important dates in history, it all adds up to 23.”
Examples given by the actor include that the Hiroshima bomb was dropped at 8:15 (8+15=23) and that there are 46 chromosomes in the human body, 23 from each parent. Carrey even changed the name of his production company to JC23 after becoming convinced of its importance, so when a script about it appeared on his desk, he simply had to bite. “The way they came up with all the different things was really compelling,” he said of Fearnley Phillips’ screenplay. “Then I gave it to a friend of mine to read and he finished the book in about an hour and a half, and when I got back into the room he opened it to page 23 and was going around every 23 words to see if there was a code. That’s what I want to do for the audience.”
Unfortunately, viewers didn’t share Carrie’s enthusiasm. The film received some seriously scathing reviews and was left in the lower echelons of Carrey’s filmography. Curry’s performance, though serious, was strange. Known for his malleable comedic brilliance, Walter’s role sometimes feels stilted, as if he’s struggling to find his footing in the film’s bleak landscape. However, moments of weakness appear, suggesting a depth that the text fails to fully exploit.
Despite all the bad press, The Number 23 grossed about $77 million at the box office, a good return on its $30 million budget. She also found a fan with a famous name – Jim Carrey. “I was able to explore the darker sides of my personality,” the star said. “Which was really a blast and something different for me.”
Curry also managed to find some personal inspiration among his 23 possessions, with a little help from our Lord and Savior. “I ended up talking to a friend who was a minister and he had a book in his pocket that he took out and handed to me,” he told Indie London. “This was the twenty-third psalm. This is “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” It’s all about living without fear and knowing that you are taken care of. So that became my motto and I go to it all the time.
Related topics
Subscribe to the Far Out newsletter
