Original subtitles

[chattering]

-[man] I can't tell. -[producer] Will you wear this?

[man] There, you're good.

[producer] All right, uh...

-So, Jim. -Yes?

[producer] How would you start this movie?

Hmm...

Well, if I had my choice,

it wouldn't start at all.

It would already have been.

And it wouldn't end either.

You know? I guess that's probably a good way to look at it.

You know, when did this movie start?

[mid-tempo music plays]

Hi, there.

[Carrey] The first inkling that the family was interested

in me doing the story of Andy

was that I got his congas.

And there's even blood on one of them.

Uh, and a little bit of DNA left behind by the master.

Welcome. He's the best. This guy's the best.

You're just so positive, man.

[Carrey] Then I heard that Milos Forman

wasn't interested in me for the part.

And it would have been a long time since I auditioned for anything.

And I kind of had to put the ego in the backseat

and say I'm driving for a minute here.

And so, I put a little audition tape together of my own.

[ Mighty Mouse theme song plays]

You don't know you can do it until you do it, so it was absolutely...

me auditioning for myself as well.

♪ ...when he hears this mighty sound ♪

[lip-syncing] ♪ Here I come to save the day! ♪

[Carrey] When I got it done,

and altogether I went, "Yeah, I can do this thing. I can do this thing."

[bongos playing]

[crowd cheering]

["This Friendly World" plays]

[reporter 1] The part of Andy Kaufman went to comic actor Jim Carrey.

[reporter 2] Breaking news. Jim Carrey, one of the most popular actors--

[reporter 3] ...most watched and well-paid actors...

[Carrey] 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?"

Andy Kaufman cared less about making his audience laugh

than keeping them confused.

Wrestle me!

[cheering]

[Carrey] I bet he would be doing something like

trying to communicate telepathically.

[Kaufman] And maybe I went too far, I don't know.

That's what most people are telling me.

Immediately, like, 30 dolphins came to the surface.

[man] Andy Kaufman!

[speaking indistinctly]

[Carrey] So, I thought, "Maybe I'm on the right track."

So, I decided from then,

for the next few days,

to speak telepathically to people.

♪ With the skies so full of stars ♪

[Carrey] It was absurd. It was completely absurd.

But somehow, it worked.

But you, you're a-- [bleep]

[Carrey] 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.

[Kaufman] I will pay $1,000 to any woman that will beat me in this ring!

[chattering]

You start now when Andy steps in, you know.

You mean me. I step in.

-Yeah. -Okay.

You are being Andy in this movie.

I know, but you talk like I'm not standing here.

-No. -Like I'm a different person.

Know what you are playing though?

That is really weird. It's totally surreal.

It's really bizarre.

Thank you very much.

[Forman] Cut!

It's perfect.

-[bell ringing] -I don't like it .

[Forman] Okay. Huh?

I want to do one more.

-[Forman] Okay, let's do one more. -So bizarre.

It's really great. He's exactly the way Andy was. Exactly.

We left the show, I said, "George, this guy's the worst comic I've seen."

He says, "Isn't it great?

I said, "No, he's the worst comic I've ever seen!"

It was really something.

I tried to explain, "He's trying to bomb. He's doing the bombing routine."

-How do you explain Kaufman before-- -If you've never seen him.

-Abuday! -Abuday!

[Hirsch] Let's say he's here right now, looking down,

and he sees this guy playing him that well.

Creepy.

Imagine you came back and you saw somebody playing you.

But on the other hand, it might be nice to have been...

uh, remembered.

Yeah, but I didn't know him. I was practically like all other people.

I remember watching Andy on the Dick Van Dyke...

uh, specials,

uh, and the Carson Show doing the Foreign Man.

♪ I do you, do me like this, this, this ♪

♪ 'Cause I love you Give me a kiss, kiss, kiss ♪

[kissing]

[laughter]

-[producer] Where were you then? -[Carrey] Oh, I was in Canada.

I wasn't even a comedian yet. I was a comedian in my house.

But... yeah.

It was before I had even started.

And it blew my mind.

Andy Kaufman!

[Carrey] I went, "Wow, this is different."

This doesn't care what everything else is.

[lip-syncing] ♪ Old MacDonald had a farm ♪

♪ E-I-E-I-O ♪

Whoa!

Whoa!

[Tex] Oh, I like that song, Mr. Billy! Let's all sing it, shall we?

[Mr. Billy] All right, little Tex. Are you ready, boys?

♪ Old MacDonald had a farm ♪

♪ E-I-E-I-O ♪

[Carrey] Andy broke through the so-called importance of the medium of television.

Everybody was on their best behavior, had their best stuff.

Man, Ed Sullivan, there were people spinning plates and stuff like that.

[humming]

And they had, you know, routines they had come up with

and perfected over a thousand years.

And here comes Andy lip-syncing to a record.

♪ ...when he hears this mighty sound ♪

[lip-syncing] ♪ Here I come to save the day! ♪

♪ That means that Mighty Mouse Is on the way ♪

[Carrey] You know, Mighty Mouse is wonderful.

Reading the whole of Great Gatsby,

unbelievable idea.

Chapter one.

[laughter]

[clears throat]

"In my younger and more vulnerable years..."

[Carrey] Basically, the Foreign Man was his plea to his father

to love me, accept me.

And he even wore his father's sports jacket.

I would like to do for you some imitations.

So first...

[Carrey] You know, because his dad obviously loved him,

but he was an insurance guy,

and he kind of expected the all-American kid.

And what he got was some kind of effeminate,

kooky, creative, insane person

who liked to spend all his time in his room doing shows to the wall.

I thought Doodyville was inside of the television.

Like if television was this box, and if I went inside the box...

[Carrey] His genuine sweetness,

child-like quality,

his love for songs like "Rose Marie,"

and Slim Whitman being his favorite singer.

[lip-synching] ♪ Rose Marie ♪

♪ I love you ♪

♪ I love you ♪

[woman] Let's hear your best ending for this sentence:

"I'll do anything for you except..."

Except what?

[laughter]

[Carrey] He didn't belong to the club.

Any club.

And he was the one, while everybody else was playing sports,

he was talking to the trees.

But it was about pulling those people over.

But it was about, "I've got something in my hands and it's really magical."

But you can't see it,

'cause I have special powers."

You know, it was that need to be special.

Latka, no, this is a very important phone call.

[Carrey] I don't think there was anybody better to do it than me.

-Yes. -I know what it's like to...

do shows in my room to the wall and rehearse for the company.

And every time somebody comes over, to be putting on a show.

And the one that's a little different.

[speaking gibberish]

[producer] Do you feel like talking to the people closest to him helped?

Absolutely, it helped,

but that's their version of him.

That's the way they want him to be seen.

[Forman] Nobody knows. Action.

[Carrey] And you have to kind of take all of that in,

and then make your own assumptions, and your own calls,

and your own-- go with your own instinct.

♪ Rose Marie ♪

[Carrey] I know that guy. I know him as well as I can know him.

But...

who do you know?

Even when they're right in front of you.

[Oprah] Jim Carrey!

[cheering]

[Carrey] I mean, I'm the guy who wrote the ten-million-dollar check to himself

and had it to come to fruition, and...

I'm the guy who had the substitute teacher in grade two

who said that, "You know, whenever I want something, I pray to the Virgin Mary,

I ask her for it, I promise something in return, and I get whatever I want."

So didn't you write yourself a check? I heard you did. Is that true?

Yeah. I wrote myself a check for ten million dollars,

for acting services rendered,

and I gave myself five years.

My dad could never afford a bicycle, so I went,"Okay."

And I went home and I prayed for a bicycle and...

promised I'd say the rosary in return and...

then I got a bicycle.

It showed up in my living room.

A brand-new Mustang bike.

I put it in one of the scenes in Eternal Sunshine,

a Mustang bike with a banana seat.

Just before Thanksgiving 1995,

I found out that I was gonna make ten million dollars.

So you visualized...

From then on, it was whenever I wanted something to happen, I manifested it.

I stood there in an open field like this with my arms out

going, "I'm ready. Come on.

-[singing] -[thundering]

Cut.

That's enough. Perfect!

Thank you very much!

[Andy] Thank you very much!

-[Forman] Thank you very much! -[Andy] Thank you very much!

[Carrey] Finding out you have something special that you know how to do,

and it gets a reaction.

And it was like my dad.

My dad was really funny, so I tried to be funny, and I was funny too.

Holy moley, this is great.

And that's how I got...

attention, and love, and made people think I was special.

'Cause I'm a wild and crazy guy!

[applause]

Jim Carrey from Aldershot High School...

I started out imitating people.

My name is Jimmy Carter...

And I was gonna be the man of a thousand faces,

because the only person I had ever seen that had made it from Canada

was Rich Little, so I thought that was the way you did it.

Lay down and pick the berries!

Henry Fonda and, you know, people like that.

I could do anybody physically really well.

James Dean.

And then at a certain point, I decided I would be training with weights on.

I'm not gonna have jokes.

I'm just gonna get up onstage and sweat in front of the audience

until something happens.

I feel really good tonight . Really good. Excellent .

-[laughter] -I just want to go.

So I was just making sound.

I was just doing things that were weird.

And then I'd go home, and I'd lay on my bed,

and I'd think, "What do they want? What do they want?"

Okay, so let's practice. Okay.

It wasn't what I wanted.

I knew what I wanted.

I wanted to be successful, I wanted to be a famous actor.

But, "What do they want? What do they want?"

Then one day, in the middle of the night, I woke up out of a sound sleep,

like sat up in bed and went, "They want to be free from concern."

[laughter]

And the light bulb went off.

The very next night, I went to The Comedy Store,

and the first thing I did was say...

Good evening...

"Good evening, ladies and gentleman. How are you this evening? Alrighty then."

Like that.

And it killed. Slaughtered.

Suddenly they just roared,

because they knew I didn't care.

[applause]

What I had decided,

in that moment in my bed, was, "They need to be free from concern,

so I'm gonna be the guy that's free from concern."

I'm gonna appear to be the guy that's free from concern.

Alrighty then!

It's as if I went into a fugue state,

and Hyde showed up.

When I put that mask on,

I can do anything.

Be anything.

I have a Hyde inside me

that shows up when there are people watching.

You know. When there's a thousand people with their eyes on me,

and they hand me a microphone,

Jim goes away and Hyde comes out.

You know. But it's a good Hyde.

It's not a hateful Hyde.

It's a loving Hyde

that just wants everybody to party and have a good time, you know.

Uh... but it's a Hyde nonetheless, and I feel like sometimes...

afterwards, like, "Damn, I lost control again...

to him."

[man 1] Good night, Andy.

-Thanks a lot. -[man 2] Jim, it's been a pleasure...

-Hey, you mean Andy. -Andy?

-That's right. -Okay.

-Okay. -Okay.

-Okay, I'll tell Jim you like him, though. -Okay, you do that.

-All right, thanks. -All right.

Which means I got to get up at five-twenty-fucking-five.

Fucking shit.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

So that I can come here and go, "Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello!"

Oh, wait, I'm not coming here tomorrow, it's Tony.

-I get some rest. -[woman] You have the day off.

I got some rest coming. I'll get some R&R.

It's okay, just leave it open.

Don't worry about it, I don't give a damn. Understand?

No problem.

[host] Is Tony gonna show up tonight?

-[Kaufman] Tony? -Clifton.

[woman laughing]

I don't ...

[host] Sheesh.

[laughter]

-Why, that must be one of Tony's fans. -[Kaufman] How do you know him?

Well, I know that Tony Clifton shows up once in a while where you're performing.

Yes, well, uh, he's only on two occasions, really.

-You know. -[laughter]

This is true! I mean, you can have him on your show,

you'll see for yourself if you think it's me.

-I can assure you, you will... -I would love to have him on my show.

Can you arrange it?

I can't, but you can find out his agent...

Kaufman's been using my name to get places.

And, uh...

So there is no truth to the rumor that you're actually Andy Kaufman?

There's no truth to that whatsoever.

That's total fabrication on your part.

[laughing]

I didn't-- a lot of other people have said that.

Yeah, I know, but many people say a lot of things.

[Tony] Okay!

Okay, I got it, I got it!

[banging]

I got it! I got it!

[banging]

[mid-tempo music playing]

-Good morning. -[woman] Good morning.

I have some roses for all the beautiful girls in the world.

[razor buzzing]

[increases volume]

[mid-tempo music playing loudly]

[DeVito] You'll see after a while how he...

I heard Milos had to force him to go into makeup and hair.

He was passed out on the couch.

[Carrey] The attitude was already there.

And when you put that Tony Clifton makeup on, there's no choice.

You're that guy.

He's here!

He has arrived!

[clapping]

[Carrey] That nose.

The jowls .

And it's scary at first, and then after a while you just go,

"Oh, my God, this is incredibly liberating."

-[man] Tony, Tony. -Huh?

I want to introduce the head of the studio, Ron Meyer.

-It's nice meeting you. -Nice to meet you. Thanks for the gift.

[Tony] Do not mention Andy Kaufman to me.

I am not an Andy Kaufman fan. I do not like Andy Kaufman.

[Carrey] The great Academy Award-winning director

of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

had to come to Tony and prostrate himself

uh, to the great Tony Clifton.

Uh, he had to come with his head down and-- and say,

[imitates accent] "Tony,

I know that you know much better than I do what is right for this scene.

But if you could just do one-- one take

where we try it this way,

I would be so indebted to you for the rest of time!"

-Then you start. Say whatever you want. -Yeah. Okay.

It's... you know, you can overlap.

-All right already! Okay! Okay! -You can overlap with his first line.

-Okay, fine, fine. -Christ.

[woman] As a director, Jim Carrey's nowhere in sight.

-You're dealing with Tony Clifton. -Yeah.

-[woman] Is that frustrating? -It is.

I need a director with backbone.

[chattering]

I'm starting a little production company of my own.

-Oh, yeah? -Yeah.

Action!

Taxi, waxi!

Just the faxi, Maxi!

Them's all the words that rhyme with taxi.

Cut!

Perfect, okay!

[man] Quiet, please!

You take care of yourself, and make sure you come back in, you know, one piece.

-Absolutely. -Or two pieces would be nice too.

-[whispering] Two pieces too. -Huh?

What do you mean? What's going on?

What-- what, are they doing some kind of technical thing?

Huh?

What's going on?

-[man] Sound check. -A what?

[man] It's called a sound check, Tony.

-[Tony] A sound check? -[man] Yes.

I'll check the sound.

[yelling]

It's working.

We're gonna have to deal with him.

He mellowed after lunch.

He was just kind of a pain body who needed to point it at something.

And uh-- and he did. And he did.

And generally, he pointed at the people that he felt were the loftiest,

who thought they were better than him.

[man] No filming, no filming.

-What's that? -[man] Can't film here.

Okay.

[Carrey] On the Universal lot, he stumbled into Amblin,

and busted through the doors,

and, uh, and wanted to see Steven Spielberg.

[woman] I have this, uh, gentleman in the lobby

that is looking for Steven Spielberg.

[Tony] I would like to see the real shark.

-This shark is a phony shark. -[man] Excuse me.

[Carrey] And wanted to assure him

that his movies didn't have to be so crowd-pleasing.

-[Tony] I do creatures. -[woman] Steven's not here.

-Yes, I do. -What do you do?

-I do a yak. -A yak?

That's right. Yak!

[Carrey] Steven wasn't there, but he made quite a show of himself in courtyard,

and had everybody out of their offices looking at what the hell was going on.

Trying to buy his way into heaven.

[laughter]

-[man] No filming! -[Tony] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

["I've Gotta Be Me" plays]

♪ Oh, whether I'm right ♪

[applause and laughter]

♪ Or whether I'm wrong ♪

♪ Oh, if I find a place in this world ♪

♪ Or never belong ♪

♪ I've gotta be me ♪

♪ I've gotta be me ♪

[mumbling]

♪ Well, I've got to be me! ♪

Ya! Ha!

I guess it's like a freakin' evolution poster!

[laughing]

Zmuda's a good man. I don't care what he wants to put in his mouth.

[laughs]

I want something, goddamn it! That's what I want!

[laughter]

It's freaking me out!

[producer] Can we talk a little bit about

why someone would make a character that people hate?

That a lot of people didn't even find funny, or like what the reason--

It's funny on a certain level.

On an anarchist level, it's funny.

Hey, look, there's Corey Feldman!

It's Corey Feldman!

[Carrey] I think so much of this came from feeling disenfranchised .

And it depends on how much you kind of resent

that feeling of being an outsider.

-I'll sit over here. -Okay.

[Carrey] And feeling like you're not accepted.

[man] Yes, yes, yes.

Not only, like, in society,

but in some parts of your own family,

and, uh, how you just want to...

you want to get someone's attention.

And I think that that's that.

Like, "How am I gonna get your attention?"

I am Andy.

Get out of here.

I've seen enough.

You take care of him.

Pushes.

[chattering]

-He's pushing. -[man] He's pushing?

-Less is more. -[man] Absolutely right. Yeah.

I think he's blowing it.

I can tell.

The eyes got a little buggy.

-[Tony] They were buggy. -[man] Yeah, you're absolutely right.

[Tony] He wants to be liked. Jim Carrey, he wants to be liked.

He wants to be liked by everybody. He's his worst enemy.

[producer] There's a scene where Tony is talking about Jim.

He's a coward.

[producer] And he's saying stuff like he wants to be liked by everyone.

-He's a coward. -Yeah.

[producer] Do you...

Yeah, I think at that time he was pretty-- he was pretty accurate, actually.

You know, but there's, you know, there's truth,

and then there's truth with charity.

I just wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed the shark.

-The shark movie, Jaws. -That's right. That's right.

-Yeah. -He never did better than that!

Tell Jim we are doing Friday dinner.

Who and who?

You and me.

-Who's you and me? I'm not going. -I know, but...

[Carrey] Milos called me about two weeks into shooting,

and he said,

[imitates accent] "I don't know what to do.

I have never dealt with anyone like Andy."

-I'll check with him. -Check and let me know.

-I'll let you know. -Okay, good.

-I'll get him to call you. Okay. -Very good.

-Very good, very good. -It's a deal.

I'm so exhausted, you know.

-I am so exhausted. -I know. I understand.

[Carrey] " And Tony Clifton,

I have never been intimidated

by another man.

And I am intimidated by Tony Clifton!"

And, uh...

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, I think."

And then 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."

[man] Jerry.

[Tony] I'm Batman.

[chuckling]

I'm Batman.

[chuckling]

[piano playing]

[singing gibberish]

[Michael] Standing over there, I first came in,

I really had this feeling that someone else might be walking in also.

-Oh, it's always a possibility. -Yeah, right.

[woman] How's it feel to be around your brother again?

[Michael] It's an amazing thing.

He has embodied Andy so much,

and-- and all the different parts of Andy.

And he's put him somehow...

He knows him, he understands him.

[Andy] Abi-dabu-way.

-Abu-day! -Abu-day!

-Aki-chay-wa! -Aki-chay-wa!

Hak-in-bo-day!

[producer] Had you played a real person before?

[laughing]

That's an odd question.

Uh...

-Like a living person? -[producer] Yeah.

Um, I don't think I had before that, no.

Hello. Good to see you.

-Good to see you too, Daddy. -Yeah.

And, you know...

I'm very proud of you.

-You are? -I am.

Whoa.

Okay.

Bye, Andy.

Okay.

[man] Yes.

[Carrey] And the family,

they embraced me as Andy,

as if I was family .

As if I was back.

I think that this movie's gonna be a celebration

and also healing for everybody.

Yeah.

You too, for you too.

For us.

[Carrey] And no one really knew what was real and not real half the time.

I didn't know what was real and not.

You just went with Andy and Tony

and wherever their whim took you.

And the emotions oftentimes were very real.

You want me not to tell you what I really feel?

[Andy] Yes.

Oh, so you want-- okay, all right, that's what I need to know then.

All right, then I won't tell you my concern.

I just want to be supported.

If I want to choose to do something, you should support me.

I mean, I don't understand why you're always negative, and you don't...

Gerry Becker, who was playing my father at one point,

went crazy suddenly in the makeup trailer,

started screaming at Andy as his father.

I'm angry because I love you.

I'm not angry 'cause I want to try to not give you support.

Too late! Too late!

["Starman" plays]

[Becker] All right, fine. Okay.

♪ But he thinks he'd blow our minds ♪

♪ There's a starman waiting in the sky ♪

♪ He's told us not to blow it ♪

♪ 'Cause he knows it's all worthwhile ♪

It's okay.

That reminds me of my dad.

[crying]

I can't believe that.

♪ Starman ♪

Sorry.

♪ He'd like to come and meet us ♪

♪ But he thinks he'd blow our minds ♪

I'm terrible. I'm terrible.

I'm terrible.

-I want you to be here. -I'm here.

I want you to be here.

It's just bizarre. It's so bizarre. It's so...

This is what started happening all over,

this kind of crazy melodrama happening everywhere.

[Kaufman] Don't try that again!

I am a star,

and next time I come here, I want you all to get down on your knees

and bow down to me!

And if I pass you by, kiss my feet!

You bunch of slimy hicks from Memphis, Tennessee!

-You hicks! Go and clear them out! -[man] Okay.

Clear the fields and the farms, you little hicks!

I'll tell you something, you are not welcome here, okay?

You are not welcome here. All right, Lawler?

I'm not afraid of you.

[chirping]

[Forman] Whoa, whoa, whoa!

-Wait. -He's trying to scare me.

-No, he doesn't scare me. -You have to work now.

Andy, you are here to work.

[screaming]

Andy! Andy!

-[mumbling] -Andy! Andy!

Is that how you talk from Memphis, Tennessee, Mr. Lawler, huh?

-Huh? Is that how you talk? -Andy!

You have to give me a chance to make a movie!

I don't need to make a movie. I want a shot at him, that's what I want.

[Forman] Okay.

-What are we gonna do? -I don't know.

-I don't know. -[Andy] Lawler!

[chirping]

Andy Kaufman, who, in his comedy routine in various nightclubs,

would invite women up from the audience and would then wrestle them.

He, uh, then began to name himself as the inter-gender champion.

He took it one step too far when he went up against Jerry "The King" Lawler.

-Remember that night? -Absolutely.

Jerry "The King" Lawler found out that Andy Kaufman is a comedian

and not a professional wrestler.

[announcer] Whoa! And as Lawler slips out of the way,

he nails The Colossus.

Lawler's got him!

[cheering]

Hart trying to get the big guy loose from the ropes,

and look at Lawler go to work on him!

[cheering]

He picks Andy up.

He's gonna suplex him.

[cheering]

[man] Ooh!

[Andy] Like that's all he's known for now. ..

is fighting me.

I'm the reason wrestling even exists now.

I'm the reason for Hulk Hogan.

[Forman] In this movie, you'll have to...

At the end, you have to be friends with him.

[Andy] That sounds really Hollywood.

[Forman] I know it sounds Hollywood, but that's, uh...

You know, that's what really happened, but...

Well, I don't believe that.

I'll do anything you want me to do.

[Carrey] The relationship with Jerry Lawler,

I think that was a function also of coming from a different world,

and he was wonderful.

Uh... but, um...

And I really liked him, uh...

But, you know, Andy felt that it was necessary

for him to stay in the character,

so Andy stayed in the character.

So, I don't care what you say.

You can take your, you know, your fancy, like, wrestling moves.

Want to take a poke at me? Come on. I know all the pressure points.

-Go find a girl to wrestle, okay? -Yeah?

All right.

[Lawler] No, I've not said anything to Jim Carrey.

It was my understanding that you don't talk to Jim Carrey.

-He's either Andy or nothing, you know. -Right.

[grunting]

You're screwing everything up in there.

[Lawler] I understand-- I guess I understand what he's doing ,

and the fact that, like you say, he is wanting to be so in character.

He is wanting to be Andy Kaufman.

He's a real goof.

[honking]

[Carrey] And he was also going, "Hey, where's the edge of this? "

You know, in real life, Andy and I were actually friends,

and we, you know, planned things together.

I didn't come here to be insulted. I'll walk right out.

I'm used to being on big shows nationwide, not on a little rinky-dink local show.

[Carrey] And it didn't work out that way...

this time .

Can't stand to watch it anymore. Jerry, there's a little surprise.

And it's right behind you.

[clucking]

When we're backstage, in front of just the people working on the movie,

to stick a sign on somebody's back and to...

uh, throw water on you, you know, and stuff at my girlfriend,

and that kind of stuff.

Once again proving Darwin's theory.

Oh, man.

[woman] Oh, oh, oh!

[shouting]

[Lawler] Anytime I want to, understand? Anytime I want to!

[man] He's joking around! He's joking, man!

-[Lawler] Well, a joke goes too far! -[man] Okay.

-Anytime I want to, I can do this to you! -[man] Okay.

[Lawler] You understand that? Anytime!

-[Andy] Okay. -[Lawler] Anytime.

[Carrey] He's a wrestler.

He gets caught up in the part, man.

And some of it becomes a little bit real, and some doesn't, you know,

so if it escalates till somebody gets a broken nose,

it escalates till somebody gets a broken nose.

I think that Andy had trouble early on, which is very, very hard.

Jim had trouble later on,

and it...

and it kind of threw him for a loop,

and he got angry.

And...

And he used that to express himself, you know?

In many ways.

There was a lot of anger in everything he did, but...

[clears throat]

He's afraid if he gets healthy,

he won't have creativity, sometimes.

-[man] Jim? -Yep.

And I think sometimes he makes a conscious decision

not to be completely together.

When I watch the footage of the stuff we took behind the scenes,

I often wish that that was part of the movie,

you know, that it had been married in the movie,

because most people felt that the movie was happening behind the camera.

Okay, now, let's do one more rehearsal.

Uh... Andy?

[producer] So, what was the trajectory of this footage from when you shot it ?

What was the original intent with it, and how did it end up where we are today?

One of the things that I've always really been kind of annoyed by

and I certainly-- I don't like things that look like actors are stiff,

and they're standing in front of cameras and performing,

and they do these things called electronic press kits.

I always allow it, but it's never a comfortable thing for me

to have someone lurking around with a camera.

It's always bothered me.

So when they said they wanted to have an EPK,

I said, "I got Lynne Margulies here. She's a documentarian.

She was Andy Kaufman's girlfriend.

She knows Andy really well, you know.

Bob Zmuda's here.

He's a creative, you know, genius dude,

who did all of Andy's stuff with him.

What's your name?

-Bob Zmuda. -Bob what?

-Bob Zmuda. -Zmuda?

Bob what, Zmuda?

Bob Zmuda?

[Carrey] I said they can do the EPK footage.

We'll get footage every day,

and I was comfortable with them.

I get a call last night from Jimmy

who said that they are maneuvering, and they are gonna find a way, basically,

to sequester the material.

-Jimmy said they came down hard. -[Zmuda] Who's they?

Universal.

Universal, Meyer, everybody.

They just were like, "Look, this is-- this is our project.

I don't care if, you know, Jim Carrey wants to jack off all day long

you know, he can fucking do whatever he wants,

it's our movie, it's our set, it's our concept,

and you're giving the stuff over."

[Carrey] Universal decided at that time that they didn't want me to

allow any of that to surface...

so that people wouldn't think I was an asshole.

And, uh, those were the words exactly that came back to me,

that, "We don't want people to think Jim's an asshole."

[laughs]

[Tony] Quick impression.

Jackie Kennedy.

Oh. Ah, Christ!

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Ah!

Oh, Christ.

[piano music plays]

My name is Jim Carrey, this is my Saturday Night Live audition.

The day I was auditioning for Saturday Night Live,

I got out of my car, and I heard a voice say,

"Don't jump."

I looked up at the top of the building, and there was an NBC page

standing on the logo,

trying to get the nerve up to jump off and kill himself.

And I went, "This is not gonna happen."

"This is not gonna happen."

♪ Oh, you can do anything ♪

♪ But lay off of them blue suede shoes ♪

[singing]

But I'd worked in factories. I had a ninth-grade education.

And it's a series of, like, crushing disappointments,

and I just go into a different gear.

I go into "Don't know how it's gonna right itself, but it will," you know?

I don't know how.

He's been in Hollywood about ten months and created quite a bit of excitement.

This is his first appearance on American television. Welcome Jim Carrey.

Jim.

[Carrey] My father said, "That's great. Maybe we can turn it into something."

And I said, "No, it is something actually.

It's making it. I've made it. I'm on The Tonight Show."

♪ Warden threw a party In the county jail ♪

And they're all like, "All right, okay. Hope it, uh, pans out."

♪ Imposter ♪

♪ I'm just a middle-class white kid From Toronto ♪

♪ In spite of how I sound ♪

♪ Single went platinum, bigger than Marley Jimmy, Yellowman, but I'm not mulatto ♪

Just before everything started cooking for me,

I think I might have been doing In Living Color already,

I was driving down Melrose Boulevard by The Improv ...

I saw this psychic palm reader sign.

And , uh ...

she gave me a reading.

And she said...

"You're about to do three things,

three movies,

that will be very, very, very big,

and very important.

And...

after that...

it will be impossible for anyone to knock you down from that place."

Shortly after that, I did Ace Ventura, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber.

La, la, la, la, la, la.

Ooh! That was perfect.

-[woman] Courtney comes today, you know. -Oh, yeah? Cool.

Excellent.

It's very funny because this is my old neighborhood.

Welcome!

-Hello! -Welcome! Welcome!

[Mariachi band playing]

[laughter, screaming]

[cheering]

[Love] We have that on hard copy.

-Stop it! -Just kidding.

-I'm only kidding, you know? That'll pass. -You're a sweet daisy.

We didn't talk much, the minute she started playing me, I felt it was me.

She had little mannerisms. Didn't you think so?

-Little mannerisms and... -[Stipe] Oh, she's great.

Yeah, she's great! I really felt like it was me.

She's really gonna kick my ass in wrestling.

-[Margulies] Ha! -[Stipe] She's strong.

She's strong.

[laughs]

Taking the laundry in and stuff like that, all that stretching.

You're not gonna back out of this thing that you're gonna do today?

-You're actually going to wrestle a woman? -[Kaufman] Oh, yeah. Uh-huh.

-Why don't you ever wrestle a man? -I'd rather wrestle a woman.

[laughter]

[Carrey] The public just did not understand the wrestling,

and the taunting, and the whatever,

and touching the emotional and sociological buttons.

Now, I'm not saying women are mentally inferior to men

because when it comes to things like cooking and cleaning,

washing the potatoes, carrots, raising the babies...

...making the babies, mopping the floors.

[booing]

They have it all over men. I believe that.

But when it comes to wrestling...

-[booing] -[Andy] Shut up!

Be quiet when the man is talking!

The whole women's movement was exploding at that time,

and he went the other way

and said they should be in the kitchen, and all this stuff.

He just was on his own wavelength,

and you were either gonna join or you weren't.

And he seemed to thrive off those who didn't.

God, men, women, dog.

[laughter, booing]

It was like when Jesus said, you know, "Eat my body and drink my blood."

It's a way to, like, weed out the crowd.

Those people who don't see anything past the literal...

Please do Foreign Man.

-Please. Please. -No, I hate that.

[Carrey] They don't bother to look for the absurd truth behind it.

He's not interested in them.

Do Latka! Do Latka!

Do Latka!

[all] Do Latka!

Here's Latka's ass.

[laughter]

[Carrey] We're coming out of Vietnam, out of Nixon, out of the Beat Generation.

Andy was a big Beat Generation guy.

[speaking gibberish]

[Carrey] I don't think he liked structures that were expected to be.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

And I think also I'm glad, you know, I expressed that thing

about the, "Thank you very much, thank you very much,"

'cause every comic that gets a catchphrase like that goes crazy with it.

[man] That's right, their signature.

Ultimately, that kind of stuff chews you up,

and it might've chewed him up a little bit.

Drives them crazy, the very thing that makes them famous.

[man] Yeah.

[Carrey] You're the crowd's man after a while.

You know, it's not-- it's not Jim Carrey who can walk down the street just, uh...

you know, doing anything he wants to and get away with it,

because nobody knows you.

You know, after a while, hopefully, it'll be to the point

where I can't walk out on the street. Won't that be fun?

[laughs]

Where it'll be impossible to walk anywhere without being recognized.

At some point,

when you create yourself to make it,

uh, you're going to have to either let that creation go,

and...

and take a chance on being loved or hated for who you really are,

or you're gonna have to kill who you really are...

and fall into your grave

grasping onto a character that you never were.

Sure you're not gonna miss this guy?

When he's gone, all that's left is me.

Everything speaks to me. It's the weirdest thing.

Every movie I've gotten in my life, I could trace any movie,

and I could tell you somehow

how that was the absolute manifestation of my consciousness at that time.

I was Truman, I was in the bubble at that time.

Peter Weir knew that. He cast me because of it.

Hello? Come in, Major Burbank.

[whistling]

[laughing]

Eternal Sunshine was so much...

I was very heartbroken.

And she looks at me like she doesn't even know who I am.

Excuse me?

Can I help you find something, sir?

[Carrey] And that was really just about that feeling of,

"My God, I have to erase this from my mind."

Patrick!

Baby boy!

[Carrey] And also the feeling that that person had erased you.

I felt like I had been erased.

Let me know if you need something, sir.

My name is Joel Barish,

and I'm here to erase Clementine Kruczynski.

When I met Michel Gondry,

he looked at me over lunch, and he said, "Oh, my God, you're so beautiful.

You're so beautiful right now.

You're so broken.

I love this.

Please don't get well."

You know, because the movie wasn't shooting for another year,

so he asked me not to get well.

[laughs]

That's how fucked up this business is.

Degenerate.

You guys don't smoke.

-What the hell are you doing smoking? -Smoking, choking, joking.

Boking.

And this fucking is ridiculous.

It's ridiculous. I don't smoke.

In your dream, is it you in the dream, is it Andy, or is it Tony?

It's everybody. Everybody's in the dream, and they're all pulling, you know.

I had a wrestling match with Andy and Tony last night.

[Zmuda] Jesus.

Every actor goes through it when they take on a role for a long time.

You've heard the stories, you know.

[as Tony] Somebody give me a fucking drink. Can you get me a drink?

-[woman] No. Go away! -What?

-[woman] Go away! -Why not?!

[laughing]

[woman] We don't want Tony to come back!

You stink!

[low-tempo music plays]

[yelling]

Where's my chair?

-This is the, uh... production trailer. -Huh?

This is the production trailer.

-Production trailer? -What are you looking for?

-I thought it was the makeup trailer. -Oh, no.

-Making all the trailers look the same! -[man] I know.

[man 2] Should we try walking him first or just carry him?

-[man 3] Let's try to walk him first. -[man 2] Okay.

[woman] Strap him in!

[groaning]

[producer] I guess one thing, was Tony actually drinking?

I don't know, but he stunk to high heaven.

-[producer] Yeah. -So, yeah.

I don't know.

[woman] Does he ever stay like Tony all the way home?

-Yeah. -[woman] Yeah?

Yeah. Especially Tony.

-Does he ever get out of bed as Tony? -Uh, yes.

[laughs]

-Whose trailer is that we're paying for? -That's Jim Carrey.

Oh.

He's not been to work. Jim never comes to work.

He's done very, very little work on this project,

and yet, he will get a lot of the glory.

That's right. [laughing]

Jim can act like me all he wants, he never will be me, no matter how much he tries.

Tried to have a bottle of wine with him the other night.

Got all freakin' negative.

That's right. Jim was upset, and I told him that's just fear.

That's fear talking.

-[man] Fear? -Yeah.

He's afraid he might not be recognized for the almighty powerful

creativity force that he is!

[Carrey] Every time you open your mouth, you learn about yourself.

Especially when you play characters, because when you improvise,

the choices you make are always very revealing of who you are.

He came from alcoholic grandparents.

Because there's really nothing in there but the truth.

He knows fair talk.

Where did this character come from?

What is the dirt...

that the pearl is built around?

And the pearl is the personality you build around yourself

as a protection against that thought,

"If they ever find out that I'm worthless,

if they ever find out that I'm not enough,

I'll be destroyed."

[woman] Hey, Tony, what do you think about that comedian Jim Carrey?

Yeah, he's all right.

laughter]

Always smiling all the time. You can tell it's not real.

[man] There we go.

[laughter]

[Carrey] All that pain was so valuable. Suffering is so valuable.

I was a seven-year-old kid who would,

when my father's face was beet red,

and my grandfather had cornered him for like three hours

and told him what a loser he is,

um...

when they left, I was Grandpa Jack.

"Goddammit, Percy!

You're a loser, Percy.

You're a loser, but you're a hell of a guy!"

You know.

And I eventually turned that into the Dysfunctional Family Home Show

on In Living Color.

[laughter]

Listen, son, I just want you to know that I love you.

I think you're a hell of a guy.

[producer] Can you tell me about your dad?

My father was not only the funniest man in the room,

but he was a fantastic saxophone player.

And before I was born, he had an orchestra in Toronto.

But, you know, in order to be something special,

you had to leave Canada and come down to the States

and prove yourself in the States.

He was a little bit afraid of that transition,

and also he had a family to take care of,

so he became an accountant.

And as time wore on,

it wore him down, you know.

It wore him down, and he got a little bit bitter,

especially when he lost his job when he was 51.

Uh, that really broke him.

Not only was he compromising to raise a family,

but when you compromise and you fail,

it really hurts.

It hurts even more than failing at what you love.

So that was an example for me.

A lot of people don't know this, but, uh...

but when I was about 14 or 15, my father lost his job,

and I actually became homeless for quite some time.

Of course, I grew up in Canada,

so I thought we'd just gone camping, you know.

But...

I learned that you can fail at what you don't love,

so you might as well do what you love.

There's really no choice to be made.

[sighs]

What you want to be, you know?

It's like my old man didn't get to see everything,

but he saw it happen,

and it's happened for him as much as it did for me.

You know, so, that's why I get emotional.

Everybody gets emotional when they talk about their dad, but...

But, uh...

But he truly was a friggin' amazing human being.

[up-tempo music plays]

Yeah, breakfast burrito.

[Tony] That's the Hells Angels, okay?

Don't-- don't mess around.

-[DeVito] No. -Huh?

No, no, we don't mess around.

[Tony] Feel free to do whatever you want.

[man] I think when this film wraps,

at least eight or nine people in this production

are gonna sue this production for mental stress.

That would be different than a regular production?

Eight dollars for a fucking bottle of water. That's a rip off!

You know, that's Andy Kaufman's right-hand man.

-Oh, yeah? -I swear.

You ever see the wrestling stuff? He's always the ref.

There were two Tony Cliftons, there was Andy Kaufman and Bob Zmuda.

[Carrey] Bob was a troublemaker right out of the gate.

You know, they used to do things like go to the zoo

and run through the zoo screaming,

"The lion's out! "The lion's out!" and stuff like that.

Here, I'll show you humor. That's humor! That's humor, man!

And he was responsible for a lot of the Tony Clifton stuff

as much as Andy was.

Those two together were in cahoots.

[Andy] See, that there is great, two getting the kiss.

[Forman] Is this Andy or you?

-[Andy] That's Andy. -[Woman] No, that's Bob.

-This is a test. -Okay, that's Bob.

[woman] Is it Bob? Is this?

And so Andy would book Lake Tahoe and never show up there.

And it would be Bob Zmuda as Tony Clifton who would show up

and cause all this insanity to happen.

And the people who hired him think it's Andy Kaufman.

I need this gig like I need a gunshot blast to the face!

Jesus, what a fucking nut.

That's what I'm talking about right there!

You want to see some humor, huh? You want to see some humor?

There's humor right there, huh.

[Giamatti] A lot of these people don't know that it's Jim,

and a lot of people thought he was abusing me before.

-[woman] So are they completely left out? -Being very sympathetic towards me.

They're like, "What, is he serious with you?

You're a day player, right?"

I'm like, "I don't know what the fuck-- what did I do?"

That's some humor to me! Now you just sit down and enjoy that!

Okay? Ha, ha, ha, ha! Real funny!

-I'd like to do one more. -[Forman] One more, okay!

[Carrey] And he was just as much trouble with me. I mean, he was just...

As soon as he saw how far I was going into the character,

he became the old Bob,

and it brought him to life,

and he was back in business.

-[man] Who are you with, Mr. Clifton? -Who am I with?

-[man] Yes, sir. -I'm with Lynne.

[Carrey] 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."

[man] I need 25 at the front door.

You better check with Hef,

or you will never see me here again!

-I got some asshole at the gate here. -Okay, that's it. Who said that?

Which one of you said that?

[Carrey] Hugh 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 milkshakes.

-Hello. -How you doing?

Where are you gonna be later?

-That cannot be Jim Carrey. -There's no way.

If that is him, he is fucking amazing.

I hate him now!

I hate him!

[Carrey] Two hours later, after he had worked the whole room,

and, you know, Hugh had invited him in,

and posed with the Playboy girls, and all this stuff,

I showed up .

Hi, how you doing?

Hugh was standing with Bob Zmuda,

and he turned and looked at me,

and he just went ashen. [laughs]

He went white as a ghost.

He says somebody called the freakin' office. Somebody called his office.

How do I get out of here?

Get that fucking camera off, too.

[Carrey] And they escorted Bob off the property through the back way.

[man] Mr. Clifton, you need to leave.

-This is fine, I'm being kicked out. -[man] We need the tape from your camera.

I am being kicked out.

[man] We need the tape.

-No choice. This is per Mr. Hefner. -[Tony] Okay.

[Zmuda] He told me I was gonna be his writer.

Then for two-and-a-half years he wouldn't use anything I wrote

because he's now going on Saturday Night Live,

and he has the whole laundry list

of Cow Goes Moo, Mighty Mouse, you know, of all that stuff.

-He doesn't have to... -Doesn't have it.

As soon as he goes through all that and there's nothing left,

'cause he has no more of the trial bag left,

he gets on the phone and calls Zmuda to come up from San Diego,

'cause he's definitely creatively bankrupt.

[laughs]

And then I take over Kaufman's job.

[laughter]

And then the film becomes Zmuda!

[Andy] Everybody in this movie,

every role in this movie is someone who came in contact with Andy

in this special life,

and they all want...

everybody wants to be the most important person to Andy,

[man] Right.

Or the most important person in that mix, whatever happened, you know. And...

It's all about identity. Identity.

And God...

this movie has turned out to be so much about that, you know?

About all of our identities. What we need.

[man] Okay, Andy, we're recording,

and if you'd like to say a few things, we're ready.

And you're on.

S...

S...

Spring was never waiting for us, girl.

It ran one step ahead

as we followed in the dance between the parted pages,

and were pressed in love's hot, fevered iron like a striped...

[cheering and applause]

[mid-tempo music plays]

[cheering and applause]

Is that my dad? Huh? Huh?

It is! Oh, jeez.

Holy moly. I'm tripping.

And I know they know I'm not their son, obviously,

but it's been like almost like role-playing therapy.

-[man] Yeah. -You know?

A bit, where, you know, they get to talk to him.

You guys are here. This is great.

[Carrey] That day...

Andy heard that his daughter wanted to come down to the theatre

and, uh, speak to him.

[laughs]

And so, she came down,

and she, uh...

You know, Andy had had her out of wedlock

when he was a teenager, and, uh...

she was, uh, put up for adoption,

and she didn't know who her dad was until he was on Taxi.

And then someone somehow got to her and, uh...

and told her that...

uh, that that was her dad,

uh, who was Latka on Taxi.

And, uh...

And she never got to meet him before he passed away.

So that day,

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...

and exploring the reasons why it happened like it happened,

and where he is now.

That's kind of touching, that one.

'Cause, you know, Lynne and I talked about it a lot,

where would Andy be now?

And she always believed that he would be in heaven

uh, taking care of the kids.

You know.

Playing games with the kids.

Hi, I'm Andy Kaufman, and last year I was in a...

wrestling match with a professional wrestler by the name of Jerry Lawler.

Uh, I would say the match was unfair, being Jerry Lawler was twice my size,

and I wasn't prepared for what had happened.

What happened was he used an illegal hold called a pile driver,

where he banged my head into the mat...

Hi, guys!

How are you?

Seem very nice to me.

[chattering]

[cheering]

Don't start any trouble and there won't be any.

I think it's Dracula!

Elvis called, he wants his shit back!

[laughing]

At that point, it was...

It was not me, you know? It was not me.

I was not making choices based on what Jim does.

I was making choices based on what Andy does.

And Andy does the choice that makes you want to leap over the barrier

and throttle him.

Shut up!

[booing]

[Lawler] I guess I'm thinking about what Andy was really like,

and as far as I can remember, it was like he was very well-mannered.

I mean, he always referred to me as Mr. Lawler, that sort of stuff. He--

I mean, uh...

Jim Carrey's coming up behind me,

doing all this kind of stuff, shoving me.

[shouting]

Oh! Oh!

You all right?

He pushed me off.

-Until you are lift for the pile driver. -Okay.

After the side suplex, he will gently put you down.

-Uh-huh. -Okay?

[cheering]

[Carrey] He got me upside down, got Andy upside down,

and then he put him down.

They'll know it when they see the cut. It's like, "Stuntman, enter now."

-They're pretty savvy, audiences today. -They are savvy.

They can spot a stuntman a mile away.

He came down and said the insurance companies weren't gonna have it,

and they were gonna shut down production and do all these things.

I'm not really okay. I feel like I'm being duped.

Oh, come on!

I do.

You think I'm kidding, you think it's a bit. It's not.

I'm gonna do it whether the cameras are rolling or set up for it or not.

And that's when all hell broke loose, when Andy started accusing him

of being an establishment player,

and a guy who's afraid of the insurance companies,

and afraid to do something outrageous, and afraid to be an artist.

I think, you know, he'll be primed and ready,

'cause I know how to ring his buttons, push him.

He was supposed to come to Jim Carrey's house for dinner!

[crowd yelling]

Shut up! Shut up!

He was supposed to come to Jim--

[crowd yelling]

Turn that off. Turn that off.

Everybody back. Everybody back.

[crowd chattering]

[Carrey] And then, I was thinking as an actor in my head...

how far should I take this?

You know, how far would Andy take it?

["Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" plays]

[man] It's not okay. I'm doing my job.

Ow, ow, ow, ow.

[Carrey] No one knew.

My people didn't know if I was hurt.

My managers didn't know if I was hurt.

No one knew.

We're very disappointed.

Uh, Mr. Lawler, who is a professional wrestler,

we felt acted unprofessionally.

There's a small swelling in his left sternocleidomastoid muscle.

We have reports that Jim Carrey had somehow egged on Lawler,

perhaps had spit in his face.

Well, he did spit in his face

as Andy had done years ago in Memphis.

So, Jim playing Andy

performed as Andy in what happened years ago.

Jim Carrey was shooting a scene...

[reporter] Carrey was playing Andy Kaufman.

This was a wrestling match with a crowd of extras in the audience.

Jerry turned around real angry...

That's amazing.

[man ] Another station, look.

Jim Carrey is refusing to ever work with Jerry Lawler again.

It just all has tumbled into each other.

It became a piece.

[man] Click, click, click.

And it's, like, on the news, the real news.

For those of us that remember him, it is a little Kaufman-esque, isn't it?

It really is, we'll see. People in...

[radio chattering]

[Stern] You know there are movie cameras present. You're just doing in and out.

[Andy] Look at this shit.

[Stern] Was Carrey spitting on him off-camera?

Oh, my God.

They're up on fences, they're up on balconies in the apartments.

[producer] Was there ever a moment in there where Jim sneaks back in,

and there's like a feeling of like of responsibility, or like guilt, or...

Yeah, there's feelings of guilt,

feelings of, like, "Did I go too far, did I...?

Ooh, boy, that, uh...

that was a lot. I hope I don't get in trouble. I...

Should I tell them? Should I tell people? Should I not tell people?"

And I probably should never have told people, but I don't know.

I'm not the same personality as Andy. Andy would never tell you.

[man] Get him on the stretcher...

to be transported to a hospital.

[Carrey] He was about breaking that wall and not...

not stopping when the cameras stopped.

[man] So Kaufman, laid out on a stretcher, we can only...

He wasn't about there's a section of time here

where we act like the character, then it's over.

You know, he came in to turn reality on its head.

He's in the intensive care unit at St. Francis Hospital.

To completely blur the lines.

Are you ready?

Jim Carrey!

[crowd cheering]

[Carrey] He really inspired me to do some crazy stuff too.

I mean, I remember going on Arsenio Hall...

uh, during the riots, you know,

and, uh...

with a bottle of wine in my hand,

and acting like I'm shit-faced drunk.

Hey, you're not Jay.

[laughter]

And I thought I was really over the top, but people really were concerned.

I mean, they were completely concerned.

And then I called him a black bastard,

and took a feeble swing at him, and fell on the ground.

You black bastard!

[crowd screaming]

-We'll take a commercial-- be right back. -That's for Reginald Denny!

-[Carrey] After that show, my manager... -We'll be right back. I apologize.

I went backstage, he was leaning his head against the wall like this,

and he had just this...

the blood had drained out of him.

And he was like, "I don't know, man. I don't know, man.

You might have done some bad stuff out there, man.

You might've... you might've...

you might've blown it, man."

You know, it was one of those moments where I went,

"This is what Andy felt all the time.

This is what he faced all the time."

[cheering and applause]

Tonight, for the first time on network television, they meet face-to-face.

Here are Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler.

[cheering and applause]

[Lawler] What took place just evolved. It wasn't that we were in cahoots.

It was just sort of a--

sort of a thinking on the same level type thing.

It was just something that kind of happened,

and afterwards, you know, it turned out good for everybody.

[applause]

[laughing]

Look at Dave's face! He won't even look over there!

He will not even look over there.

[man] You have to be prepared

for any kind of eventuality in this situation.

We're hoping it goes smoothly.

-[Andy] Hey, Jerry. How are you? -Hey, how are you?

-Just fine. -Good to see you.

All right.

-A lot of shit went down, huh? -Yes, it did.

-A lot of shit went down. -Yes, it did.

I just wanted to say that today--

-Eggs just went down a while ago. -Huh?

-Some eggs went down a while ago. -What do you mean?

[Lawler] Somebody threw an egg at me.

That's only a little bit of that.

[Carrey] The stuntman came in

and discussed how he was supposed to miss me, and...

and...

uh...

Andy, me, whoever,

leaned over just before it began and said,

"Hit me.

I mean, really hit me."

[Lawler] What kind of guy are you?

[laughter]

I think-- I think maybe I'll get a lawyer.

[laughter]

Take a break.

[Andy] Apologize to me right now.

You're just poor white trash. So, I guess...

[crowd gasping]

I mean, what are you gonna do?

[crowd screaming]

[shocked laughing]

Oh, fuck.

[panting]

[muttering]

I'm sick of this shit, okay? I am sick of this fucking shit, okay?!

You are full of shit, Lawler. I'm gonna sue you for everything...

[Carrey] I don't think he was really trying to kill me.

Fuck you!

You know, it's just creativity.

Fuck you!

This stuff doesn't matter.

I come out of Mr. Chow's or something like that, or The Ivy,

on Robertson there,

which is like the paparazzi...

you know, mecca.

And, uh...

one time I came out of there, and I-- and I decided,

"Okay, I'm gonna...

I'm gonna stand here.

I'm not gonna say anything, and I'm gonna wait."

And it suddenly got quiet.

And I'm just standing in front of The Ivy restaurant.

And they said, "What are you doing?"

I said, "Nothing."

-[Forman] Cut! -[woman] That's a cut!

That was great. That's it, that's perfect!

Andy, put some of this on it for now. We'll get it in a rag.

Cue the sun.

[crowd wincing]

-Jeez! -What time is it?

Christof, what's going on?

You know there's a rumour circulating that he's dead?

[Andy] It's about looking at life as a film, as a movie,

and it's nothing more than that, it's an illusion,

and that you should be up here watching it

-That's it. -rather than being caught up...

[Carrey] I've stepped through the door.

The door is the realization

that this, us...

is...

seaside. It's--

It's the dome. This is the dome.

This isn't real, you know? This is a story.

There's the avatar you create

and the cadence you come up with that is pleasing to people,

and takes them away from their issues, and it makes you popular,

and then at some point, you have to peel it away .

And, you know, it's not who you are.

He has the world's most recognizable face. He can't disappear.

At some point, you have to live, you know, your true man.

I mean, Truman Show really became a...

-Again. Hit him again. -a prophecy for me.

It is constantly reaffirming itself

as a-- as a teaching almost,

as a-- as a real representation of what I've gone through in my career,

and what everybody goes through when they create themselves,

you know, to be popular or to be successful.

And it's not just show business. It's Wall Street, it's anywhere.

You go to the office, put a monkey suit on,

act a certain way, say a certain thing, and lie through your teeth at times,

and you do whatever you need to do to look like a winner, you know.

And then at some point of your life, you have to--

you have to go, "I don't care what it looks like. You know.

I found the hole in the psyche and I'm going through.

And-- and I'm gonna face the abyss of not knowing

whether that's gonna be okay with everybody or not, you know."

Um...

And at times, you know, just like the movie,

they try to drown you in the middle of that abyss.

They go, "No, be the other guy. You told us you were this guy.

You told us you were Andy.

You told us you were Tony Clifton."

You know, no one can live with that forever.

[chattering]

[man] I love you, man!

Thank you very much.

[laughter and cheering]

[man] I love you!

I like you a lot, but...

[laughter]

I don't love you.

[laughter]

[producer] Can you talk about what it felt like in the Carnegie Hall performance?

That was haunting. Yeah, I felt that that was haunting...

to just go and recreate that.

[singing gibberish]

You know, where he just made one thing after another, after another,

and he didn't stop until they were completely blown away

and had the most incredible night of their lives.

They knew they were part of something special.

["Hallelujah Chorus" plays]

♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪

It's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!

♪ Dashing through the snow ♪

♪ In a one-horse open sleigh ♪

♪ O'er the fields we go... ♪

It's the Rockettes!

I can't believe it!

[crowd cheering]

♪ What fun it is to ride and sing ♪

It's Santa Claus!

♪ Jingle bells, jingle bells ♪

♪ Jingle all the way ♪

♪ Oh, what fun it is to ride ♪

♪ In a one-horse open sleigh ♪

[Carrey] And at the very same time, he was facing the abyss.

For him to take everyone to that place...

while at the same time he knows there's something going on

that he's got to face that is, uh...

absolutely terrifying.

So do you think Andy could tell us why you got us here?

I....

I have cancer.

Forget it!

Forget it!

No, this is in such poor taste. I don't want anything to do with this!

We can make that play. I can push him around in a wheelchair.

Guys...

That's funny...

but it's not a gag, Bob.

I got cancer. I got lung cancer.

Andy...

look in my eye and tell me this is true.

[Lynne] I'm sorry.

-I'm sorry. I'm sorry. -Hey.

I'm sorry.

[sobbing]

Lynne?

Come on, hey.

Hey, hey.

["End of the Line" plays]

♪ Well, it's all right ♪

♪ Even when push comes to shove ♪

♪ Well, it's all right ♪

This is a good song for today.

♪ If you got someone to love ♪

♪ Well, it's all right ♪

♪ Everything will work out fine ♪

[Carrey] I think sometimes people that...

exist so completely in their character,

and maybe not know how to get out of it,

or how to take another road might take the ultimate road,

you know?

Where they, uh... they have to actually leave the, uh...

the planet.

You know, to get out.

All we really yearn for is our own absence.

After all, you know?

We yearn for what happens at death.

[exhales]

"I don't have to worry about that anymore?"

♪ This is Major Tom to Ground Control ♪

♪ I'm stepping through the door ♪

I truly, uh, feel like, uh.. .

like if you ask me where I live right now,

where the real me is,

I would say that there's a quiet, gentle seat

in the universe

that seems to...

contain everything,

and that's where I am.

I don't want anything. That's the craziest thing,

and it's the weirdest thing to say in a place like America,

where I have no ambition.

I really, truly don't.

How are you feeling?

I'm doing fine, Andy.

[producer] Where do you think that'll take you?

[Carrey] Nowhere .

I don't have to go anywhere.

That's fascinating to me now,

the disappearing.

You opened my eyes to so many things...

I never believed I'd ever see.

[producer] 'Cause the younger you

starting out and trying to make it definitely had...

-Yeah. -...had a different thing.

So where did that transition take place?

Uh...

Somewhere in the middle of...

absolute confusion,

absolute disappointment,

absolute, uh...

uh...

the fruition of all of my dreams,

uh, standing there with everything

anybody else had ever dreamed about having,

and being unhappy.

["Space Oddity" plays]

[Forman] Cut!

-Yes! -[man] Good, okay.

[chattering]

[Carrey] The crew, and the cast,

and everybody was so in love with Andy at that point

that they were truly saddened, you know,

and he was reduced to this little glow.

In my mind, he was this little glow,

this divine spark

who's slowly going out.

♪ Six ♪

♪ Commencing countdown, engines on ♪

♪ Three ♪

♪ Two ♪

♪ Check ignition ♪

-♪ And may God's love be with you ♪ -♪ Lift off ♪

♪ This is Ground Control to Major Tom ♪

♪ You've really made the grade ♪

♪ And the papers want to know ♪

♪ Whose shirts you wear ♪

♪ Now it's time to leave the capsule ♪

♪ If you dare ♪

♪ This is Major Tom to Ground Control ♪

♪ I'm stepping through the door ♪

♪ And I'm floating In a most peculiar way ♪

♪ And the stars look Very different today ♪

♪ For here ♪

♪ Am I sitting in a tin can ♪

[producer] Do you feel like you'd be in the same place in your life

if you hadn't played Andy?

Uh, well, no. Butterfly effect, man, you know.

Would've been somewhere completely different.

Uh...

But the choices make you, you know.

I'm not a big believer in free will either, so...

um...

You know, I pick up the tea because I'm thirsty.

Is that free will, you know?

Or am I thirsty?

You know, what told me to pick up the tea?

Okay.

[woman] I think the wrong cigarettes are in there.

[man] Background, action!

[Carrey] Andy came back to make his movie,

and Andy did what Andy does.

And Andy turned it upside down,

and it still got made.

It was-- it was a joyful, loving experience for everybody,

and the evidence was right there on the last day.

Everybody with a bag on their head, and everybody crying,

people crying.

[cheering]

This horrible person. [laughs]

[cheering]

[Tony] I want to thank everybody.

I want to thank everybody for this.

[woman] Thank you!

[man] Thank you, Tony!

[cheering]

I just want to say that...

although I never liked him,

Andy Kaufman was a brilliant man.

And...

And he changed a lot of things,

and opened a lot of doors for a lot of people in their lives.

And I'm honored...

to be part of this.

And we should all thank our lucky stars that Andy Kaufman walked this earth.

[applause]

[cheering]

Cheers!

-[producer] Do you miss Tony now or-- -No.

-After spending time with him? -No.

-In that period? -No.

I don't miss anything.

["The Great Beyond" plays]

♪ I've watched the stars fall silent ♪

♪ From your eyes ♪

[Carrey] I would like to say I feel bad

that I wasn't in the REM video .

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'm pushing an elephant up the stairs ♪

Jim Carrey, Man on the Moon.

♪ I'm tossing up punchlines That were never there ♪

Hello!

[producer] Know where the title of that song came from?

[Carrey] The great beyond to me.

It probably means different things to Michael Stipe,

but to me, Andy was the great beyond.

[cheering]

♪ I don't want to stay around ♪

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.

[cheering]

Suddenly I was so unhappy,

and I realized that 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."

You stepped through the door not knowing what's on the other side,

and what's on the other side is everything.

You know, everything.

There's a feeling of relief

from this vehicle

that's traveling through space,

trying to, like, grasp onto stuff,

like fucking countries, and religions, and...

uh...

And I find it all so abstract.

Why am I an American?

Why am I a Canadian?

What is that? What does that mean?

Somebody put a line down and said, "This is that." You know, uh...

You know, we're so much more.

Then we, like, are born into a family, so we're told what our family name is.

And then your parents choose a name, and they say, "Your name will be Joel.

It means the...

awesomeness of Yahweh," you know.

"And you have to live up to that, dude,

and, uh, we're counting on you not to make us look bad.

And you're gonna go to Harvard,

and you're gonna be a doctor, and you're gonna be--

And by the way, you're a Catholic, or you're a Jew,

or you're, you know, whatever you are."

It's like everything is so...

are these abstract structures that you're given,

and it's supposed to hold you together somehow, you know.

And I've just given 'em up, you know.

I don't need to be held together.

I'm fine just floating through space like Andy.

You know, just...

flying 6,000 miles an hour around the sun.

You know.

Balancing on tectonic plates that are floating on lava.

You know, ready for the end times to occur

and whatever the hell is gonna happen.

I'm just great.

That's all great. That's all great.

You're on a spiritual journey, period,

and we're all gonna end up in the same place,

if there is such a thing.

And maybe there isn't. Maybe there's just this and that's it.

There's me and the teacup, that's it.

There's us. We're the universe, man.

I like that, that's fine.

Yeah.

So...

uh...

Yeah. I don't know what else to say about all this.

Yeah, I think I'm tapped out.

-[producer] Okay. -You know, unless, uh...

I wonder...

I wonder if I could do that with other people?

I wonder what would happen if I decided to just be Jesus?

[cheering]

Wow, we got into some crazy shit down there.

[producer] That's it.

♪ Mott the Hoople and the game of life ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Andy Kaufman in a wrestling match ♪

[cheering]

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Monopoly, 21, checkers, and chess ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Mr. Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Let's play Twister, let's play Risk ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ See you up in heaven If you make the list ♪

[Andy] Fuck yeah.

-♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ -I'll hold the camera.

I don't care if Jim Carrey wants to jack off all day long.

He can fucking do whatever he wants.

It's our movie, it's our set, it's our concept,

and you're giving this stuff over.

But you would then say you would not give your release to the use of yourself.

Just if-- I mean, unless you're putting me on.

Oh, you're so full of shit.

[-laughing] -[woman] What the hell's going on?

-You're sick! -[laughing]

How does it feel? How does it feel?

The shoe is on the other foot!

Fuck you! Fuck you too!

["Man on the Moon" plays]

[Tony] ♪ If you believed ♪

♪ They put a man on the moon ♪

♪ Man on the moon ♪

♪ Man on the moon ♪

♪ If you believed ♪

♪ There's nothing up my sleeve ♪

♪ Then nothing is cool ♪

♪ If you believed ♪

♪ They put a man on the moon ♪

♪ Man on the moon ♪

Thank you very much, you've been a fantastic audience!

[cheering]

♪ You can criticize me All the way to the bank ♪

♪ My single's number one And shabba don't rank ♪

♪ Time Warner kicked Ice-T Off of the label for dissing the cops ♪

♪ They said it just ain't right ♪

♪ But when a Caucasian man Records a cop-hating song ♪

♪ They don't have a problem ♪

♪ Must be an oversight ♪

♪ All the Jamaicans think I gave them a bum steere ♪

♪ But everything I know I learned from an auctioneer ♪

♪ The bidding will start at seven For this here Gauguin ♪

♪ Eight, do I hear eight, nine Who'll give me ten? ♪

♪ I got ten Ten going once, going twice, sold ♪

♪ I can spout gibberish And it'll go gold ♪

♪ I am what I am And that's all that I am ♪

[scatting]

♪ I rap in your songs With the best of my ability ♪

♪ You need a black man To increase your credibility ♪

♪ When put on the spot I side with the rasta ♪

♪ 'Cause Sean ain't down With no imposter ♪

♪ Imposter ♪

♪ Like Vanilla Ice The people are sick of me ♪

♪ They put my boom-boom down ♪

♪ In four months ♪

♪ My butt'll be back in Canada Working a day job ♪

♪ With a burger crown ♪

[scatting]

♪ Would you, would you ♪

♪ Would you like fries with that? ♪

♪ A hot apple pie with that? ♪

["I've Gotta Be Me" plays]

[Tony] ♪ Oh, whether I'm right ♪

[cheering and applause]

♪ Or whether I'm wrong ♪

♪ Or whether I find a place In this world ♪

♪ Or never belong ♪

♪ I've got to be me ♪

♪ I've gotta be me ♪

♪ Willing to try to do it ♪

♪ Or die ♪

[yelling]

[cheering and applause]

Thank you very much!

Thank you. I do all my own stunts.