Celebrity feuds are not as common now as they were back in the day but it isn’t every day we see an A-lister criticize some other star’s acting methods. However, that is exactly what happened when Jim Carrey’s acting methods were criticized by Martin Freeman for his acting in the biographical comedy movie, Man on the Moon.
Martin Freeman lashes out at Jim Carrey’s method acting techniques
Jim Carrey is one of the most established actors of his generation and back in the 90s, the actor was at the peak of his career and was making headlines left, right, and center. Carrey did a movie, Man on the Moon back in 1999 in which he portrayed the role of Andy Kaufman, although the movie was not much of a critical or commercial success, the fans appreciated Carrey for his performance in the movie.
In 2017, a behind-the-scenes documentary, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond was released of the movie, Man on the Moon movie. In the documentary, Carrey talked about how he used method acting to portray his role of Andy Kaufman to perfection and even asked the cast and crew of his movie to refer to him as Andy Kaufman even off the camera.
In 2021, speaking on the Off Menu podcast with the hosts James Acaster and Ed Gamble, Martin Freeman opened up about Jim Carrey’s views on method acting and lashed out at the actor. He said,
“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**king 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.
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**king do your work.”
Although Martin Freeman and Jim Carrey have never worked on a project together, after this interview, surely, Carrey would not be interested in working with him either.
Martin Freeman believes the Ace Ventura actor should’ve been fired from Man on the Moon
Jim Carrey was absolutely phenomenal in the movie, Man on the Moon, and his portrayal of Andy Kaufman was also on point. However, Martin Freeman had other views on the matter and said that had it been any other actor than Carrey, they would’ve been fired from the movie if they did that level of method acting. He said,
“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.”
Man on the Moon was not much of a commercial and it also received mixed reviews from fans and critics. However, almost absolutely everyone complimented Jim Carrey’s portrayal of Andy Kaufman and he even won a Golden Globe award for his performance.
Man on the Moon is currently available for rent on Apple TV+.
