Here’s an interesting question about the Sonic the Hedgehog movie: why Jim Carrey?
Why Jim?
Why, of all the people who could play Doctor Ivo Eggman Kintobor Robotnik, did Paramount
decide to cast Bruce Almighty?
The Mask?
Ace Ventura?
Instead someone who embodies the traditional appearance of the character, such as, say,
Danny DeVito?
(Although if Danny DeVito were cast in every video game movie role that fans want him for,
he’d also be Detective Pikachu…)
In an effort to unpack the Doctor Robotnik casting choice, we’ve spent hours pouring
through every promotional interview Jim Carrey has given for the Sonic movie.
This is what we’ve learned thus far: it must be exhausting being Jim Carrey.
Every time he walks into a room, everyone tells him how great he is.
How much they love him.
Everyone laughs way too hard at his jokes, even and especially if he’s not actually
trying to be funny.
Honestly, we feel bad for the guy.
We’ve also come to the conclusion that his own peculiar insight on life makes him the
absolute perfect choice to play Robotnik.
Jim describes his life as being similar to a mango tree that he has in his garden.
He doesn’t exactly need to hunt for creative projects: they’ll drop from the sky, all
around him, as special gifts from the universe.
As such, he had to actively choose to play Robotnik.
He did this, obviously for the money, but also to bond with his nine-year-old grandson.
Plus, he wanted to use this weird video game comedy role to take a jab at silicon valley
billionaires.
Ben Schwartz has spoken about how thrilled he was to get to voice Sonic, and how he loved
the character from when he was younger.
Jim Carrey does not have that connection.
In his own words: “I knew when I got the call to do this movie,
that Sonic was a game.
I think I had played it once or twice, and after I got the call I started playing it
with my grandson, who humiliated me constantly, and the really fun part was I got to see how
smart he was, how clued in he was.
These games have turned kids into jet pilots.
I mean, they’re quick, and their reflexes are awesome.
“And, he likes to trash talk.
A lot.
He’s nine years old and he likes to trash talk.
I get angry, I put money in the swear jar, and I’m actually a lot like Robotnik when
we play.”
Jim has spoken about his nine-year-old nephew several times in interviews, and it seems
like the pair have really been able to bond over his role as Robotnik.
Jim insists that he’s still not very good at playing Sonic, but he doesn’t actually
care.
“I’m not motivated to win, that’s the trouble.
He can beat me because I’m Robotnik.
So whenever I get the controls, I just throw that character down on the spikes immediately.
I’ve got no motivation to win whatsoever.”
The Sonic movie primarily draws inspiration from the classic 16-bit era Sonic games.
Sorry, Princess Elise fans.
With this comes a challenge, as 16-bit Robotnik isn’t exactly a fully realized character.
Jim had more or less a blank slate to work from in terms of motivation.
He said, “You look at a video game and there’s
not much to it, there’s not much to the development of the characters, and you have
to really flesh it out, and I look at it like, character, like lightning, starts from the
ground up.
So all of that madness has to come from some place, it can’t just be madness for madness’
sake.”
Jim says that Robotnik came from the ground up like lightning in half a dozen interviews.
Presumably he means that this wacky, over the top character has to be grounded in reality.
It’s not enough to simply be a cackling maniac without motivation.
If that’s the case, then Jim has decided to use his flailing, shouty Robotnik performance
as a means to take a subtle jab at worthless, ego-driven billionaires.
He said: “I had to find that evil genius, that combination
of absolute intelligence and total worthlessness in his own mind.
That combination is deadly and we’re seeing a lot of it.
It sounds like billionaires.”
It seems that Jim sees Robotnik as the anti-Tony Stark; a rich, talented egomaniac who’s
desperate to be the center of attention.
It really sounds like Jim’s drawing from his own experience as a guy who can’t possibly
escape the limelight.
Said Jim: “It’s wonderful to be able to physicalize
that evil.
That self-centeredness, that constantly acting as if there’s a spotlight on you, and everybody’s
really interested in what you have to say, and if they’re not they must be banished.
“He’s a wonderful character to play, and of course he’s a three hundred IQ so of
course it took a week and a half to prepare.
It’s just wonderful, and all it really comes down to, is he wants to be special to somebody.
Only it’s gone megalomania for him, he wants to be special to EVERYONE.
In fact, he wants to be the king of everyone.
“Robotnik is a little tiny piece of nothing in his own mind, and he’s blown himself
into gargantuan proportions.
He is as smart as heck, he’s the smartest one in the room, but there’s smart and then
there’s spiritually dumb.”
Jim has spoken a lot in recent years about his own sense of identity.
About how having everyone hang on his every word, constantly being the center of attention,
having people fall down at your feet day in, day out, makes you question your own place
in the world.
In response to this, he’s come to the conclusion that he doesn’t actually exist.
He said, “I know now he [Jim] does not really exist.
He’s ideas … Jim Carrey was an idea my parents gave me.
Irish-Scottish-French was an idea I was given.
Canadian was an idea that I was given.
I had a hockey team and a religion and all of these things that cobble together into
this kind of Frankenstein monster, this representation.
It’s like an avatar.
These are all the things I am.”
That’s a deep and complex philosophy.
It’s easy to see how having this worldview, trying constantly to fight against the ego
that comes from decades of being the centre of attention, make Jim Carrey uniquely suited
to playing a character who is so emotionally fragile and desperate for attention.
Jim worked hard to figure out what inspires a character like Robotnik.
He said: “I had to figure this out.
Who is this guy?
What’s the organic seedling that created this megalomania.
To me, there’s nothing like the combination of genius and a sense of absolute worthlessness.
And where does worthlessness come from except neglect.
Abuse….
“This guy had to be part of the system.
So he grew up creating systems.”
The Sonic movie is intended to be for children and adults alike.
It’s a silly, wacky comedy, and nobody is really meant to take it too seriously.
That being the case, it’s impressive to see how just much care and attention Jim has
put into grounding his character, and giving him this tragic backstory, this painful motivation.
Perhaps the moral of the story is that no matter what task you’re given, you can always
find a way to put your own unique spin on it.
Let your talents and your perspective shine through, no matter what you’re doing with
your life.