Jim Carrey Once Called Working With Morgan Freeman Uncomfortable in ‘Bruce Almighty’
Actor Jim Carrey collaborated with Morgan Freeman for the first time in the hit movie Bruce Almighty. Although Carrey enjoyed working with his co-star, Freeman’s intensity took some getting used to.
Jim Carrey’s experience working with Morgan Freeman
Bruce Almighty was one of Carrey’s most successful projects. The 2003 comedy famously saw Carrey playing a down on his luck news anchor who’d inherit the powers of God. Freeman ended up being cast as God in the flick, pairing him and Carrey together for the first time. In a resurfaced interview with BBC, Carrey quipped that working with Freeman was as much of a delight as it was intimidating.
“Morgan Freeman is so class. Man, he’s so cool and… kind of scary. He terrified Tom [Shadyac, the director] – it was hilarious. Tom didn’t know what to do with Morgan. The first day I met Morgan, I walk up to him, shake his hand and say, ‘Hi Morgan, this is so great, I’m so glad you’re doing this movie.’ And he says, ‘Nice to meet you too. Now, never touch me again.’ He’s just got that way about him. He’s like this laser that goes right to your soul,” Carrey said.
But Carrey felt that being afraid of The Shawshank Redemption star was something all actors should’ve had in common.
“He raked Tom over the coals something awful through this whole movie – you knew he was joking, but it was still so uncomfortable. To me he’s one of those guys that every actor is afraid of, because you walk on screen with him and you’ve got to be ready. Be ready, or he’ll burn your soul,” he added.
Morgan Freeman joked that he’d like to play the devil in a ‘Bruce Almighty’ sequel
Bruce Almighty would eventually be followed up by a 2007 sequel titled Evan Almighty. Evan would be based on the biblical Noah’s Arc story, and this time with Steve Carrell as the lead. But there was another Bruce Almighty sequel once pitched that Carrey was interested in starring in. In an interview with Sci-fi not too long ago, the film’s screenwriters Steve Koren and Mark O’ Keefe revealed their plans for the second film.
The feature was going to be titled Brucifer, and would see Carrey’s character inheriting powers from Satan instead of God. Bruce’s wife Grace, played by Jennifer Aniston, would’ve died, pushing Carrey’s character to align with the devil.
“You tend to lose your faith when the world seems unfair, and that’s what got him,” Koren said. “It came from a serious place, but we were gonna write it in a very friendly way. We certainly didn’t want to depress people. So I think that scared [the studio] a little bit, but to Jim’s credit, he totally understood that we were going to make a big comedy and thought everybody would connect with it.”
“It was going to be the Trials of Job, essentially,” O’Keefe added. “The world had not gone his way since he was God. Everything was great for a while; he was married and it all fell apart. He was once again questioning everything and then got a different way to solve things.”
The writers envisioned either Freeman playing Satan this time, or Carrey playing the devil in addition to Bruce.
Judging from comments that Freeman made in 2016, it seemed the actor would’ve been more than thrilled to play Satan if given the chance.
“I had a fantasy, to tell you the truth. That I should do it. If I could interest the right people,” Freeman once told The Independent.
Freeman fantasized that his devil character would be deceptively charming and look identical to his God character. Apart from the clothes.
“You wouldn’t be able to tell them apart but for the costumes, which would be my idea,” he added.
