After establishing himself as a goofball who commanded huge box offices, Jim Carrey went in a completely different direction. He hit us with a one-two punch of dramatic heavyweight performances, first in The Truman Show and next in Man on the Moon. The latter sealed it, with Carrey earning some of the best reviews of his career for playing comedian/performance artist/pro wrestler Andy Kaufman and his alter ego Tony Clifton. The dedication he showed to the role, which basically included staying in character throughout the shoot, has become the stuff of legend.
Now Carrey is sharing some of the production's oddest moments in the Spike Jonze-directed documentary, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton. Here's a synopsis:
Director Chris Smith’s fascinating deep dive into actor Jim Carrey’s time spent portraying famed and complicated comedian Andy Kaufman. Using approximately 100 hours of footage shot on the set of Man on the Moon documenting Carrey’s transformation into Kaufman for four months.
Jim Carrey earned critical acclaim and a Golden Globe for the performance, but many of the production’s most Kaufmanesque moments played out behind the scenes, thankfully captured on video by Andy’s former girlfriend, Lynne Margulies and former writing partner, Bob Zmuda. In Jim & Andy, Carrey looks back at the resulting footage 18 years later, reflecting on how he and Andy came up in oddly parallel universes, his experience channeling Andy and Tony and more broadly the spiritual journey of his career.
Looks absolutely fascinating, and another in Netflix's growing catalog of terrific docs. Look for it to hit Netflix on November 17th.
