Jim Carrey, who plays Colonel Stars & Stripes in Kick-Ass 2 (see "First Official Still from 'Kick-Ass 2'"), took to Twitter on Sunday to reveal a change of heart about the film to his ten million followers. Carrey, an advocate of gun regulation, said, "I did Kick-Ass 2 a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence."
"I meant to say my apologies to others involve with the film," he continued. "I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart."
Mark Millar, who wrote the comics and is executive producer on the film, took to his blog to respond. He starts by lauding Carrey’s oeuvre, and describing how Carrey came to be in the second film after a positive reaction to the first (he even went on Conan in a Kick-Ass costume). He expresses his surprise at Carrey’s public statement. "As you may know, Jim is a passionate advocate of gun-control and I respect both his politics and his opinion, but I’m baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn’t in the screenplay eighteen months ago," he wrote.
Millar argues that his films are actually a more responsible depiction of violence. "Kick-Ass avoids the usual bloodless body-count of most big summer pictures and focuses instead on the CONSEQUENCES of violence, whether it’s the ramifications for friends and family or, as we saw in the first movie, Kick-Ass spending six months in hospital after his first street altercation."
He notes that Carrey’s character is philosophically opposed to guns. "[T]he big deal we made of the fact that he refuses to fire a gun is something he told us attracted him to the role in the first place," Millar wrote.
And he argues that as a fictional work, it has no influence on real-life violence. "Kick-Ass 2 is fictional fun so let’s focus our ire instead on the real-life violence going on in the world like the war in Afghanistan, the alarming tension in Syria right now and the fact that Superman just snapped a guy’s f***ing neck."
Carrey’s role is in the can, so any impact will come from his statement’s impacts on his fans’ willingness to attend the movie, or from the amount or type of promotion, if any, he does for the film.
The first international trailer gives a look at Carrey’s character, Colonel Stars and Stripes (see "'Kick-Ass 2' International Trailer").
Millar Responds
Posted by ICv2 on June 24, 2013 @ 1:34 am CT
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