Jim Carrey

 I have photographed Jim Carrey many times.  Each time was a revelation and joy.  He comes in - super nice - but we don’t talk that much. My job is to build a stage for him to explode on.  To be completely ready to capture everything.  To know this Jim Carrey energy is going to be bright and fast and then it is going to be over.  We shot the ad campaign for Bruce Almighty in about 30 minutes - both the domestic art which you have seen. AND the European poster of Carrey in a sea of clouds naked.  On a shoot for the cover of Esquire, I asked Jim in the dressing room what his rubbery face was going to look like when he got old. With that he picked up a random clothespin - and then another…   Big ideas like being naked in the clouds - or a small idea of giving him a roll of green seamless paper that he ran though so many ideas - total improvisations - finally blowing his nose into the bright green paper and letting it fly.
My favorite Jim Carrey story was from the Esquire shoot. At many of our shootings Jim invited a ‘make a wish” kid to join.  At the Esquire shooting, there were about 50 people in the studio on Main St. in Santa Monica. Magazine people. Jim’s people. Make a Wish people. My crew.  Jim asked the Make a Wish kid if he wanted to take a picture of him.  The kid did (of course).  I set him on an apple box with my big camera on a tripod and showed him the shutter button.  Jim told the kid if he wanted to take a picture of him, he had to direct him.  The room got quiet and for an awkward minute the kid stood behind the camera, finger on the shutter - trying to figure out how he was going to tell Jim Carrey what to do.   Finally he belts out, “GIVE IT TO ME JIMMY!” - and the whole room explodes into joy and tears.  He got this shot of Jim that is priceless and the rest of us were just blown away.