You will see actor Jim Carrey in Kick-Ass 2 later this summer, but you may not see him helping make any sort of promotional push.
Carrey, who stars as Colonel Stars and Stripes in the follow up to 2010’s Kick-Ass, took to Twitter to say he “cannot support” the film in light of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012.
His tweets:
I did Kickass a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence. My apologies to e
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) June 23, 2013
I meant to say my apologies to others involve with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart.
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) June 23, 2013
Following this statement, Kick-Ass comics writer Mark Millar (who also executive produced both films) took to his official website to share his thoughts on Carrey withdrawing his support. Simply put, he was baffled.
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. My books are very hardcore, but the movies are adapted for a more mainstream audience and if you loved the tone of the first picture you’re going to eat this up with a big, giant spoon. Like Jim, I’m horrified by real-life violence (even though I’m Scottish), but Kick-Ass 2 isn’t a documentary. No actors were harmed in the making of this production! This is fiction and like Tarantino and Peckinpah, Scorcese and Eastwood, John Boorman, Oliver Stone and Chan-Wook Park, Kick-Ass avoids the usual bloodless body-count of most big summer pictures and focuses instead of the CONSEQUENCES of violence, whether it’s the ramifications for friends and family or, as we saw in the first movie, Kick-Ass spending six months in hospital after his first street altercation. Ironically, Jim’s character in Kick-Ass 2 is a Born-Again Christian and the big deal we made of the fact that he refuses to fire a gun is something he told us attracted him to the role in the first place.
The Kick-Ass 2 trailer does seem to suggest that there are a huge cast of young characters involved (more so than the original film), which may be part of the reason why Carrey feels particularly uncomfortable about this violent sequel.
The timing of Carrey’s statement is interesting. His role for the film has been completed for over seven months now, so we wonder why he’s waited so long to say anything. Perhaps he recently caught a screening of the finished product, which led him to realize just how violent it is.
While his statement didn’t explicitly say he wouldn’t be doing publicity for the movie, if he “cannot support” Kick-Ass 2 then we have to think that the actor is going to try to stay as unattached from the film’s promotion as possible.
The only problem for Carrey is he likely has a contract with the studio that says he has to do a certain amount of promotion. Perhaps he sought out a special deal with the studio whereby he didn’t have to go on a publicity tour.
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, conducted by a mass shooter, killed twenty children and six adult staff members this past December. It is the second largest mass shooting in the history of the United States.