NEWS
Jim & Andy - Chris Smith Interview
05 Sep 2017 By Eva Ara�jo (Web correspondent)
Andy Kaufman was a great comedian and one of the greatest challenges for Jim Carrey to portrait in a movie. He surrounded himself with Andy's friends, family and colleagues to create a performance that made Jim fully immerse in it.
"The hilarious, provocative, and inspiring documentary shows Carrey becoming fully immersed as an actor, and is intercut with a new and introspective interview as he discusses what the role meant to him on a personal level."
Chris Smith was the filmmaker that film producer Spike Jonze chose to create the documentary: "I was excited to be contacted by Spike, as I'd taken some time away from Hollywood to concentrate on some other things in my life. This was my first time on something that wasn't fully independent, in the sense that I was responsible for everything, so it was a great experience," Smith said. He wanted to create a piece that "revolved around themes of identity and the journey one goes on in finding your place in the world. Through the footage, you get this amazing sense of how Carrey's life connected to Kaufman's and that's what we wanted to showcase."
Spike Jonze has mention that he'd "been asking Jim for years about the footage, and wanted to make something with it since he first told me about it. One of the things Chris did so brilliantly was to weave together the multiple storylines, the perspectives of Andy's life, the making of the film, and Carrey's life as an entertainer, an artist and a human being. And as a result, I think he made something very special."
Produced by Vice Documentary Films, Smith complimented the group in terms of the collaborative artistic process, noting that "everyone understood the type of project we were all trying to make and it was great to work with people outside of my circle. I'd love to work with Vice again."
Regarding Andy, Spike says: "Kaufman was committed to the ridiculous and to the art of confusion, and wasn't playing by anyone's rules. His rules were his own and so outside expected societal norms that he always seemed so free and inspiring to me. When I was growing up, he had a huge effect on me."
The movie will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival today! WME and Cinetic Media are handling domestic and international sales and we are hoping it gets dates for worldwide distribution, soon.
We at JCO will keep you updated as more exciting news come.
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