Life wasn't always a laugh for Jim
 | | I've always expected things to be bountiful," says Jim Carrey |
HIS rubber-faced antics have helped make him one of the most successful comics in the world. But life hasn't always been one big laugh for Jim Carrey.
The Hollywood star only stumbled into comedy because of a family catastrophe which still haunts him. When he was just 12 his father lost his job and times were so tough the Carrey clan were forced to sleep in a camper van.
It was young Jim who turned the family fortunes around when he dropped out of school and started performing a stand-up act in clubs. And although he's gone on to become one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood, he says he can't forget those early dark days.
"We hit the skids and we lost everything," he says, displaying a rare, serious side. "It wasn't really about losing your stuff, it's how the neighbours look at you. I saw what that does to a family very early on and it changed me.
"It gave me an edge which I use all the time. Everything painful that happens to you in your life becomes the tools that you use when you're doing a part. You don't ever think of it at the time. I wish you could.
"I wish when you had your heart ripped out by somebody, and you're gutted and laying on a rock somewhere, and seagulls are carrying away your pancreas, I wish you could say, 'This is going to be good someday. I'm going to use this'," he adds, reverting to his trademark manic grin.
True to his word, Jim has put those bleak adolescent experiences to good use in his latest film - a remake of the 1977 Jane Fonda movie Fun With Dick And Jane.
In it, Jim stars alongside Tea Leoni as Dick Harper, a man who loses everything after the company he works for goes belly-up in an Enron-style scandal. But rather than work his way back to the top he decides to recoup his losses by going on a crime spree with his wife.
"I can relate to the film, obviously because of what happened to my own father, but more than that I actually loved this movie growing up. It's great fun," explains Jim.
"And also I feel it's more relevant now than it was then because of Enron and all the corporate scams that have gone on and the people who have been affected by that."
But though his own poverty-stricken days are far behind him - he now commands more than 20 million dollars a movie thanks to a string of box office hits, including The Truman Show and The Mask - the star insists money hasn't brought him happiness.
"Everybody should get rich and famous and have everything they ever dreamed of so they can see it's not the answer," he says.
Instead he says it's only his quest for spirituality which has brought him genuine fulfilment.
"I think somehow maybe I just have grandiose thoughts, have the desire to be a great soul at some point," he smiles.
The star also says being a dad to 19-year-old Jane is one of his greatest joys.
"Even just a moment with my daughter will make me happy," he says.
But though he loves fatherhood, his love life hasn't been quite so successful. He split from Jane's mum Melissa Womer and then divorced second wife actress Lauren Holly after just a year.
He also has a broken engagement to actress Renee Zellweger and now says he's come to terms with a solitary life.
"I work a lot but I have a very peaceful home," he says. "I'm very quiet there, and I love to have my friends over for dinners and do things with my daughter. My house is very Zen and a very quiet place. It's difficult to get me out of there."
Even so, he's still one of the most in-demand stars in the world and though he never has to worry about working again, he says he won't rest on his laurels.
"I'm in it for the long haul," he says. "Sometimes I think that God is somehow fashioning it so that I do stay interested and do stay hungry. That's why I might not get certain things. I like to keep having to prove myself."
He's proved he doesn't just have to play it for laughs. He's won critical acclaim for his dramatic roles in films such as The Man On The Moon and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, a part which he admits is his favourite so far.
"It was a very special experience for me," he says of the love story which also starred Kate Winslet. "I loved it, just because I thought we were doing something really different."
Next up, he's starring in the suspense thriller The Number 23, a film which mirrors a bizarre personal obsession.
"Basically I've had this obsession with the number 23, for years, where everything adds up to 23," he explains. "In licence plates and people's dates, dates of their birthdays and things like that.
"I even changed the name of my company to JC 23 and I was telling someone this and they handed me a script called The Number 23. I read it and it was so compelling. I knew I had to do it."
It all seems to have added up for the star who really is laughing all the way to the bank these days.
"I've always expected things to be bountiful. I've always had faith that a cheque would fall from the sky, even when times were tough and it always worked out.
"I just don't worry about it," he says with that infectious Cheshire Cat grin.
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