25 Wild Stories About Jim Carrey Pretending to Be Andy Kaufman
While filming the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon, Jim Carrey took method acting to a whole new level. Not only did he inhabit the character of Kaufman even behind the scenes — complete with Kaufman’s penchant for elaborate pranks — but he also immersed himself in Kaufman’s alter egos, most notably Tony Clifton, the obnoxious lounge singer who, among his many notorious escapades, was escorted off the set of Taxi for completely and utterly pissing off everyone there.
Carrey’s own antics tried the patience of many of those working on Man on the Moon — including director Milos Forman — but it’s hard to argue that it wasn’t worth it. Carrey won a Golden Globe for his performance, and almost exactly 25 years after it first premiered, the film is still well-regarded today. In 2017, it received another burst of attention thanks to Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, a documentary that featured a lot of off-camera footage from Man on the Moon and a moving interview with Carrey about what the role meant to him.
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To mark the 25th anniversary of the film, we wanted to highlight 25 stories from the set that illustrate just how far Carrey took things as both Kaufman and Clifton.
Carrey’s Audition Tape
In a 1999 interview, Kaufman’s friend and a co-executive producer of Man on the Moon, Bob Zmuda, said, “My phone rings one day (and it’s Jim Carrey). He says he’s made an audition tape for Milos, and will I come over to his place to see it. I must tell you, I was not a believer in the beginning. This was before Truman Show, by the way, so I thought he was going to be eating the scenery. (But) the tape is not on for one minute, and I’m crying like a baby. If somebody had given me this tape and not told me it was Jim Carrey, I would have thought it was Andy. It was remarkable. (During) filming, he started exhibiting Kaufman-esque behavior that none of us had told him about, which freaked us out.”
Carrey’s Vision Quest
In Jim & Andy, Carrey recalled, “Initially, when I heard I had the part, I was sitting in Malibu, looking at the ocean and thinking, ‘Where would Andy be? What would he be doing?’ I bet he would be doing something like trying to communicate telepathically. Immediately, like, 30 dolphins came to the surface. So, I thought, ‘Well, maybe I’m on the right track.’ I decided then, for the next few days, to speak telepathically to people. It was absurd. It was completely absurd. But, somehow, it worked. That’s the moment when Andy Kaufman showed up, tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Sit down. I’ll be doing my movie.’ What happened afterwards was out of my control.”
Poor Milos Forman
In an interview at the time, Forman explained his difficulties with Carrey’s method acting, saying, “He stayed in the character 24 hours a day, which was not always easy to deal with because it was not only Andy Kaufman. Sometimes Andy Kaufman is Tony Clifton, sometimes Elvis Presley, sometimes Foreign Man, sometimes Latka, and you have to deal with all these different personalities. Took me a few days to adjust, but then I enjoyed the game. With Andy, that was civilized, although he was sometimes very stubborn. Tony Clifton was a nightmare. He was abusive, undisciplined, arrogant, you had to flatter him all the time. I had to play this game. I felt like a fool, but then I noticed that the whole crew is enjoying watching our game. That it brings excitement on the set. That it really helped the movie. So, it was alright. The sweetest was Latka; Latka was a puppy dog.”
Kaufman vs. Clifton
According to Zmuda, “We shot for 85 days. Jim Carrey was only there for two days. The rest of the time he was either Andy or he was Tony. One day was two half-day shoots. One half of the day was Tony Clifton; the other half was Andy. Next thing we knew, Andy showed up on the set with a bloody nose, saying he had passed Tony Clifton and Tony punched him out. And I don’t know if it was real blood, if it was stage blood, if the actor hit his head on something, or what.”
Andy’s Real Parents
When talking about his interactions with Kaufman’s real-life parents, Carrey said, “I know they know I’m not their son, obviously, it’s been almost like role-playing therapy where they get to talk to him.”
Andy’s Daughter
Kaufman had a daughter, Maria Bellu-Colonna, in 1969, though she was put up for adoption, and she and Kaufman never met her — until, that is, Man on the Moon. Per Carrey, “She came into Andy’s trailer and talked to her ‘father’ alone for an hour or more — and telling each other that they love each other and exploring the reasons why it happened like it happened and where he is now. That’s kind of touching, that one.”
Tony Clifton Arrives
On days when he played Clifton, Carrey would arrive on set with a paper bag on his head as the Clifton makeup wasn’t yet applied.
The Stench of Clifton
In a recent interview, Paul Giamatti, who played Zmuda in Man on the Moon, said that when Carrey was Clifton he “was walking around with fucking stinky cheese in his pockets, and he was smearing stinky cheese on people.”
Clifton vs. Spielberg
Recalling one of his days as Clifton, Carrey explained, “On the Universal lot, (Tony) stumbled into Amblin and busted through the doors and wanted to see Steven Spielberg. (He) wanted to assure him that his movies didn’t have to be so crowd-pleasing. Steven wasn’t there, but he made quite a show of himself in the middle of the courtyard and had everybody out of their offices and looking at what the hell was going on.”
Clifton vs. DeVito
“Danny (couldn’t) get onto the set because Tony (Jim) found the key, locked Danny inside Danny’s trailer, backed up a car against the door, then took the key to the car and threw it into the Los Angeles River,” recalled screenwriter Scott Alexander. “So now, Danny DeVito can’t get out of the trailer to get onto the set, so they can’t film and Tony thinks it’s really funny. Milos has a good sense of humor, but now we’ve got to go find a tow truck while Danny’s banging on the window. It was trying peoples’ patience. It was bananas.”
Clifton vs. Forman
“Milos called me about two weeks into shooting and he said, ‘I don’t know what to do. I have never dealt with anyone like Andy. And Tony Clifton, I have never been intimidated by another man and I am intimidated by Tony Clifton,’” Carrey explained. “And I said, ‘Well, we could fire them, and I could do an impression. I’m a really good impressionist, and I could do a pretty good imitation of both of them.’ There was silence on the phone, and then Milos said, ‘No. I don’t want to stop it. I just wanted to talk to Jim.’”
Clifton vs. Carrey
In Jim & Andy, Carrey as Clifton is seen talking about Carrey, saying, “He’s pushing, less is more. I think he’s blowing it. He wants to be liked, Jim Carrey. He wants to be liked. He wants to be liked by everybody. He’s his worst enemy. He’s a coward.”
Clifton vs. Hefner
During Jim & Andy, Carrey recalled how, just like in the old days, Zmuda got in on Clifton’s antics: “Jim Carrey got an invitation to the Playboy Mansion. My guys called the Mansion and said, ‘Look, Jim’s not really on the planet right now. He’s Andy; he’s Tony. And Tony would like to come to the Mansion. Hugh (Hefner) started playing around with him at the Mansion, doing a bit outside and stuff like that, thinking he was doing a bit with Jim Carrey, while I was at In-N-Out Burger having burgers and chocolate milk shakes.
“Two hours later, after he had worked the whole room and Hugh had invited him in and posed with the Playboy girls and all this stuff, I showed up. Hugh was standing with Bob Zmuda, and he turned and looked at me and he just went ashen. He went white as a ghost. And they escorted Bob off the property through the back way.”
Nightmares of Tony Clifton
Carrey “had a really hard time shaking the Tony Clifton personality. He’d wake up in the morning and he’d be Tony, and wonder where his life had gone,” said Zmuda.
Kaufman Wanted to Do His Own Stunts
During the wrestling scenes with Jerry Lawler, Jim, as Andy, protested the use of a stuntman, but the film’s insurance company wouldn’t allow him to do the more dangerous moves.
Kaufman vs. Lawler
Recalling the relationship between Carrey and Lawler, Zmuda said, “Andy thought — remember at this point, 30 days into production, it’s totally Andy (not Jim) — he’s just going to keep the rift going with Jerry Lawler for real. Off camera. Humiliating him. Putting signs on his back (that) said, ‘Hulk Hogan wannabe.’ Andy’s not letting up between takes. It doesn’t stop. This is for weeks! Finally, we’re shooting that famous scene where Andy did get hurt by this guy in Memphis years ago — or supposedly hurt, depending on who you talk to — and all of a sudden, Jim — or Andy — spits on Jerry Lawler. Right in the guy’s face.
“All hell broke loose. Jerry put him in a headlock. Now everybody gets into the act, because all this guy has to do is hurt the star, and we shut down for two or three weeks. It’s bedlam. Jim Carrey’s bodyguard jumps in and sees Jim’s leg, but he doesn’t see that Lawler has his guy in a headlock. He starts pulling Jim’s leg, and that’s what got him the neck injury. It wasn’t serious. He was out of the hospital in six hours, and that was it. But it was real.”
WWAD?
Recalling the neck injury, Carrey said he was unsure how far to take things, but he asked himself, “What would Andy do?” As a result, when Carrey went to the hospital, nobody knew if he was really hurt. “No one knew,” said Carrey. “My people didn’t know if I was hurt. My managers didn’t know if I was hurt. No one knew.”
Truly Kaufmanesque
The stunt went so far that there were actual news reports saying Lawler attacked Carrey on set and that Carrey was refusing to work with him again.
Lawler Never Met Carrey on Set
“I’ve not said anything to Jim Carrey,” said Lawler during filming. “It was my understanding that you don’t talk to Jim Carrey. He’s either Andy or nothing.”
Bombs Away!
Carrey, as Andy, also dropped eggs on Lawler from a building.
The Slap on Letterman
Prior to the scene with Andy and Lawler on Letterman, Andy (Jim) leaned over to Lawler and told him, “Hit me. I mean, really hit me.” So Lawler did as he was told.
Clifton’s Final Bow
The final day of shooting was at the Comedy Store with Carrey as Clifton. To celebrate the film wrapping, many of the people in the crew wore bags on their heads, as Carrey often did on set as the Clifton character.
Universal Withheld ‘Man on the Moon’s Behind-the-Scenes Footage
The footage of Carrey remaining in character as Kaufman and Clifton was sequestered by Universal because they didn’t want people to think Carrey was “an asshole.” Much of it wasn’t seen until Jim & Andy was released in 2017.
‘I Didn’t Want to be Andy Anymore’
Carrey declined to be in the R.E.M. music video for the song “Man on the Moon.” In Jim & Andy, he apologized for his absence, explaining, “At that time, I just didn’t want to be Andy anymore, and they wanted me to be Andy in the video and I just didn’t want to go back. Once I left Andy and I tried to figure out what the hell I am again, I just didn’t want to go back and be Andy anymore. I didn’t know who I was anymore, when the movie was over. I didn’t know what my politics were. I couldn’t remember what I was about. Suddenly, I was so unhappy, and I realized I was back in my problems. I was back in my heartbreak. And suddenly, I thought to myself, ‘You felt so good when you were being Andy ‘cause you were free from yourself. You were on vacation from Jim Carrey.’”
True Serendipity
While Kaufman was born in 1949 and Carrey in 1962, they share a birthday: January 17th.