Jim Carrey already alienated a large swath of the movie going public by insulting Charlton Heston and mocking Second Amendment supporters with the callous music video Cold Dead Hand.
Now, Carrey could be on thin ice with his Hollywood peers after attacking his own film on social media.
The comic actor fired off the following message via Twitter regarding his next film, Kick-Ass 2, the sequel to the uber-violent 2010 hit. Seems he’s suddenly ashamed of the violence in a franchise known for such content.
@JimCarrey: I did Kick-Ass 2 a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence,” he Tweeted Sunday. “My apologies to others involve[d] with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart.”
Mark Millar, who executive produced both films and wrote the comic book source material, fired back at Carrey on his blog:
[I’m] baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn’t in the screenplay eighteen months ago. Yes, the body-count is very high, but a movie called Kick-Ass 2 really has to do what it says on the tin. A sequel to the picture that gave us HIT-GIRL was always going to have some blood on the floor and this should have been no shock to a guy who enjoyed the first movie so much… Kick-Ass avoids the usual bloodless body-count of most big summer pictures and focuses instead of the CONSEQUENCES of violence.
The folks helping to promote the film, set for an Aug. 16 release, won’t appreciate Carrey’s change of heart, nor will the actors and stunt teams who helped make the movie possible.
Carrey’s career is already in trouble. He’s been reduced in recent films to playing supporting roles, and even a sure-fire project like a sequel to his 1994 hit Dumb and Dumber has struggled to gain a foothold in Hollywood.
This oh, so public skirmish, though, could threaten his standing in an industry he once dominated.