Jim Carrey: In the "Sunshine"

We love him for being a vulnerable clown; the guy who may not always get the girl or an average Joe who gets a little carried away with power (Bruce Almighty). What a lot of movie-goers won't let Jim Carrey be is a true romantic leading man. Why not I say? This dude is cute and tall and smart. Not since The Majestic has Carrey tried true cinematic romance. He may have found the perfect niche in the wacky mind-game romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Kate Winslet as the object of his affection. In "Sunshine", Jim gets to be funny and still get in some love scenes.

Carrey plays Joel, a guy whose girlfriend has had all memory of him erased from her mind. Hey, all of us would consider that after a heart-rending break-up, right? Shattered, Joel decides to undergo the process himself, with some very strange consequences. We talked to the popular actor recently and found him to be spontaneous about his heartbreaks, hilarious, friendly and also very thoughtful and earnest as he told us about lost loves and driving down the street in a bed that was also a car (huh? You'll see). Carrey's head is shaved to accommodate wigs in his next film Lemony Snicket. We noted that Jim has cute Mr. Spock ears...slightly pointed and elfish. We're afraid to mention that so we ask about the shaved head.

TeenHollywood: Were you wearing wigs for Lemony Snicket?

Jim: Yeah, a lot of wigs, tons of wigs. It was so much fun. We're about halfway through with filming it.

TeenHollywood: How did the role of Joel come to you?

Jim: The script came to me and I read it and I thought that it was incredible and I couldn't believe that I was being offered it. So, I was just very, very happy. I had this guilty feeling of, 'How did I get this one and The Truman Show, man? Great.' Those are two really interesting, original movies.

TeenHollywood: Do you have any other favorite romantic scenes from movies that you think about?

Jim: Just stuff from my own life. Movies are great, but I think that the real romance happens kind of like right here somewhere (he indicates his heart), real close up. To me, this part (Joel), I couldn't really have done it if I hadn't been through a lot in one way or the other. Either you are the one erasing or you are the one being erased. So, it's not a pleasant feeling.

TeenHollywood: How have you dealt with memories of a relationship gone sour?

Jim: I've had a lot of conversations with myself, a lot of summations and then generally, I forgive and move on and look at the world as a beautiful place again sooner or later. I think that the real magic is you accept the flaws and you accept what was wrong and you move on and you love the person for who they are, flaws and all. You can't help who you love either. It comes from a different side of your brain than the logic part that tells you that this person is horrible for you. You should walk away and so, while you are walking away, the other part of your brain is trying to gain control of your bodily functions. 'Turn around, she's the one.' (of course he's acting all this out in front of us and it's hilarious)

TeenHollywood: Sometimes the idea of erasing someone from my brain is extremely appealing, what about you?

Jim: Of course, in the moment especially when you're going through something and you think, 'I don't need this. I don't need to live in fight or flight response. Let me let this go,' but in retrospect, it always seems to work out that you can look back on something that was a disaster and find some gems in there. The wonderful thing about this movie is that it's about love and it's romantic without being romanticized. It's real love. It's love when you go, 'You are ugly to me sometimes, and I love you, but sometimes I'm not going to like you.'

TeenHollywood: How was working with Kate Winslet?

Jim: Well, I get excited when the people that I work with scare me. I mean, she's just scary talented and an amazing actress or actor, whatever you call them these days, but I get excited when I'm going to be surrounded by people who make me better and make me stay on my game and challenge me. So, she's wonderful to watch, unbelievable, because you sometimes don't know what she's doing when you're in the scene with her and then, you look at it later and she knows what's going to come off and how it's going to look. It's beautiful.

TeenHollywood: Why have you chosen films such as this and The Majestic that have to do with memory loss?

Jim: Humm, truth be told, that didn't even occur to me when I read this script. It wasn't about memory, it was about being erased. It was a different perspective on it. It was about the idea of how it would feel to be erased, and that was the strongest pull for me. It's like, 'Wow, that's a heavy feeling,' and that's what hit me with the script, when he finds out that she's erased him, it's just a brutal thing to probably anyone's ego, but to a male ego especially. I think that quick fixes are big for sure. I think that we're all erasing things every morning when we go to Starbucks. We're just like, 'Ah, whatever, it can't come up again. Don't let it come up again,' and that kind of thing. We suppress. We don't completely erase, but I think that we would in the moment.

TeenHollywood: Did you identify with the Joel character?

Jim: I don't have any big blacked out moments of my life or anything like that, but I liked that this was by choice. You know, some Valentine's Days, I'd have worn the step (in front of the memory erase clinic) down a couple of years, waiting outside in the morning, 'Please, open up early.' Part of the aspect of doing this role is that you have to open up old wounds. I mean, I wasn't ecstatic and happy when I had to sit there and peel the scabs off, and go, 'Oh yeah, I remember that.' There was a lot of that, it opened me up. I also wanted to express a lot of anger and kind of resentment of old hurts past and things like that, and what ended up happening, and I'm really thankful that it ended up happening, is that when it was all put together, it became like a love letter. So, I was saved from myself. It was a love letter to everyone that I've loved. (awwwww, how sweet).

TeenHollywood: People make the distinction of the goofy Jim Carrey role and the dramatic role. Do you make that judgment yourself when considering projects?

Jim: It's a Jekyll and Hyde situation, lets face it. No. They come as they come and when something like this comes by, you just jump on and that's all there is to it. There's no question about it. I mean, anyone would be lucky to be part of this.

TeenHollywood: Charlie Kaufman scripts are so different (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich). Is this one special?

Jim: Oh my gosh. It's like Moses coming down from the mountain with the tablets. Every time that he has a script, all of Hollywood goes, 'It's here!' He's just so rock and roll yet at the same time, he's a complete intellectual and this movie has everything going. Most of the time, he stays in this wild, intellectual world and this one, it just has such an anchor of heart, and something that we can all identify with on an emotional level. I just feel like I won the lottery.

TeenHollywood: You've worked with a lot of beautiful women in Hollywood. Is there anyone left on your list that you'd like to work with?

Jim: Oh, there are so many talented women out there right now. It's incredible. It's like a group of uber-chicks. There are just some amazing talents out there. I'd love to work with Nicole [Kidman] and many people, many, many people.

TeenHollywood: You sing this crazy song about pecan pie. Is that going to be on the DVD for this film?

Jim: Michel (the film's director) had rigged this bed with a Volkswagen chassis, It had a Volkswagen engine and everything, and he said, 'Come on out.' I had sung my Pecan Pie which is a song that I was hoping to get to Elvis, but he passed on and it goes, (Carrey sings) 'I love pecan pie. I love a pecan pie, I love a pecan pie, I love a pecan pieeee, I love a pecan pie, I love a pecan pie. I love a peeeeeeeeecan pie.' That's the song. (we clap). Thank you, so much. We went out in the middle of shooting in between takes on a really busy night and took over this gas station with this bed/car. I'm just spinning around this gas station out of control almost hitting people. The cops came in just as we were leaving down the highway with this bed. It was so insane and later on that night, Kate collapsed in the hot tub, I almost punched Michel. It was the most insane night. It was like mercury in retrograde.

TeenHollywood: Okay, quickie questions. What are you reading? Your fave book as a kid and what music are you into?

Jim: I'm just finishing 'The Da Vinci Code'. I know that I'm behind the times, but it's pretty cool. As a kid, well, 'The Red Badge of Courage', 'Lord of the Flies' which is always a nice bed time story. And music? There's just so much stuff that I listen to, whatever mood I'm in. I like everything from The White Stripes to The Bee Gees.

TeenHollywood: We hear you may do a movie version of "The Six Million Dollar Man" t.v. show.

Jim: I am bionic. We're developing that script. I think that it's just going to be a whole lot of fun. I love playing ego and playing an insecurity combined, and that's the same thing, I guess. It's ego out of control. I think that it's just going to be fun. You know, six million dollars doesn't get you a lot in this world these days. So, you can kind of imagine where the plot is going to go.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.