There is acting and what the Anglo-Saxons call the
acting method
, that of the Actors Studio, made famous by Marlon Brando or Robert De Niro, where the actors immerse themselves completely in their role.
Then, on the fringes of what is considered acceptable and professional, there is what one might call the "extreme acting method", when the word "cut" ceases to have meaning on set and the actor remains in his character, to the point of having trouble reconnecting with his true identity.
Read alsoJim Carrey, the man behind the mask
“I lost control”
This is what happened to Jim Carrey on the set of
Man On the Moon
, a tragicomic biopic about American comedian Andy Kaufman directed in 1999 by Milos Forman.
This extreme involvement of the star revealed by
The Mask
is at the heart of the Netflix documentary,
Jim & Andy,
by Chris Smith (
The Yes Men
,
American Movie),
built from images filmed during the filming of
Man on the Moon.
This film traces the life and career of Kaufman, a man who was the king of the prank, both joker and quarrelsome, from his beginnings in cabarets to success in the famous show "Saturday Night Live" until his death. of a rare form of cancer.
His biopic probably offers his most important role to Jim Carrey.
Jim & Andy
draws attention to its performance and its total erasure behind its character.
Interviewed in front of the camera, Carrey reveals how he slipped 100% into this role, resuscitating the particularities of the man who was his idol, with whom Carrey says he communicated by telepathy.
On the edge of madness
An immersion as brilliant as disturbing which led the actor to the borders of madness.
“What happened next was out of my control,” the actor says in the trailer.
"When filming ended, I couldn't remember who I was anymore," he recalls.
The incarnation which extended well after the moments of filming caused some melodramas on the set.
Jim Carrey ended up wearing down the film crew, also upsetting people who knew the real Andy Kaufman well (thus his own father, Stanley Kaufman, for example, argued with Jim Carrey as if it were his son).
These making of images, which remained unpublished for twenty years, served as the material for the documentary.
Released April 2020,
Jim &
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