LogFAQs > #925031152

As many of you know, I manage a comic and game shop. From time to time, I get some interesting characters in the shop, whether it be a low-level writer or artist, an MtG card artist, etc. Today, however, a man in his mid-50s wandered into my shop, just sort of looking around. I got to talking to him, and I learned he was one of the stuntmen in Batman Forever. He was specifically a thug under the employ of Two-Face, and he appeared in five different action sequences in the movies (for moments apiece).

He had developed a working relationship with Joel Schumacher as well as Tommy Lee Jones stretching back two years beforehand; he had also appeared in a small role in The Client. Schumacher invited him to work on Batman Forever, and he was chatting to me about his work in the movie since I pressed him on it, being the comic and movie nerd that I am. He was on set for about five weeks for Batman Forever, and he was telling me about the individual actors and his few encounters with them (aside from Tommy Lee Jones, where he actually knew him and chatted him up frequently).

All of this is preface to say this: at one point I said, "You know, there's a really famous story that Jones didn't get along with Carrey." This guy laughed and said, "Yeah, Tommy was not a happy camper when it came to Carrey." I didn't press him about the line, but here's roughly what he told me:

"When Carrey came in, everyone was told not to talk to him, not to look at him. Just keep our distance. We were all being told that Carrey was becoming the biggest star in Hollywood thanks to this, that he was the first star to get paid $20 million for a single movie. Tommy didn't say anything in particular to me, but he grunted at the mention of Carrey being paid such a big amount. Carrey came in and it was actually the opposite of what the producers told us. Carrey was very genial-like, he talked to everyone, he was always trying to make you laugh off-screen. I had a great conversation with him because I was from Memphis and I got this job because Schumacher had seen me do my Elvis act, so Carrey said, 'I heard you're the Memphis guy!' We had a great conversation. He loved Elvis.

But Tommy thought Jim was unprofessional, that he slowed down filming, that he distracted everybody. And I remember once on The Client, I tried to say good morning to Tommy right before he was gonna film one of his big scenes. He was pacing up and down, reciting his lines out loud. When I stepped into his view and spoke, he held up a finger and he just shot me a glance, it was deadly. 'Don't even think it.' So I knew Tommy took things very seriously on set. I know that I was in commissary, and I got called out for a wardrobe change. Everyone else had these sleeveless leather jackets, but I was being 'upgraded' to a sleeved jacket because my arms were skinnier than everyone else's. On my way there, I saw Tommy and we chatted while I waited for my fitting. And I'll never forget it, I mentioned that I had finally run into Jim, and he actually stopped me and said, "I hate that man." He actually said that to me.

But actually, the biggest diva on the set was Val Kilmer."

Anyways, I thought I would share with you my brush with buffoonery today!
---

2 line break(s), 160 characters allowed