Comedian Jim Carrey has decided to withdraw support for his upcoming film Kick-Ass 2 due to the large amount of violence shown. The 51-year-old actor announced that he cannot stand behind the violent movie’s themes due to the recent shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary last December.
“I did Kickass [sic] a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence,” Jim Carrey tweeted. “My apologies… to others involve[d] with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart.”
Others disagree that on-screen violence does not lead to real-life violence. Mike Millers, one of the screenwriters for Kick-Ass 2, believes that is the case.
“As you may know, Jim [Carrey] 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,” Miller wrote in a long blog post about Carrey’s sudden change of heart. “Ironically, Jim’s character in ‘Kick-Ass 2’ is a Born-Again Christian and the 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.”
This is not the first time Carrey has made his stance clear on the gun control debate. In April the comedian released a spoof video on FunnyOrDie.com portraying himself as the late Charlton Heston, former actor and President of the National Rifle Association. In the video Carrey rewrites Heston’s famous “cold dead hands” speech from Planet of the Apes with lyrics like “it takes a cold dead hand to decide to pull the trigger.”
The video stirred a large amount of controversy over the gun debate and angered many right-wing critics. Carrey responded to them on Twitter by saying, ““‘Cold Dead Hand’ is abt u heartless [people] unwilling 2 bend 4 the safety of our kids. Sorry if you’re offended by the word safety!”
Kick-Ass 2 opens in theaters on Friday, August 16.
