Jim Carrey Decries Violence of Kick-Ass 2, Mark Millar Responds by Defending Media Violence
What did he expect when he signed on for a film called Kick-Ass 2?
Jim Carrey, who is playing Colonel Stars and Stripes in the upcoming Kick-Ass 2, spoke out on Twitter saying that he isn’t happy about the level of violence in the film. The film, which, again, is called Kick-Ass 2, is a sequel to a movie whose MPAA R rating was due to “strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some drug use – some involving children.” The film that was also, coincidentally, filmed months ago. Perhaps Mr. Carrey should have expressed his discontent sooner.
I did Kickass a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence. My apologies to e
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) June 23, 2013
I meant to say my apologies to others involve with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart.
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) June 23, 2013
The tweets drew enough attention for Kick-Ass‘s creator Mark Millar to address them in a blog post. “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.”
“Yes, the body-count is very high,” Millar added, “but a movie called Kick-Ass 2 really has to do what it says on the tin.” That’s right, and to quote Monty Python, if they took the bones out, it wouldn’t be Crunchy Frog, would it?
Millar praised Carrey’s performance and the upcoming film as a whole, but couldn’t help but take a stand about the role of violence in the media:
I’ve never quite bought the notion that violence in fiction leads to violence in real-life any more than Harry Potter casting a spell creates more Boy Wizards in real-life. Our job as storytellers is to entertain and our toolbox can’t be sabotaged by curtailing the use of guns in an action-movie. Imagine a John Wayne picture where he wasn’t packing or a Rocky movie where Stallone wasn’t punching someone repeatedly in the face. Our audience is smart enough to know they’re all pretending and we should instead just sit back and enjoy the serotonin release of seeing bad guys meeting bad ends as much as we enjoyed seeing the Death Star exploding.
He concluded on an appeal to serious issues. “Kick-Ass 2 is fictional fun so let’s focus our ire instead of 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 fucking neck.” That last part was fictional violence too, so I’m not really sure what Millar is trying to say. Moral of the story: If you want a serious discussion on violence in the media, don’t expect it coming from Twitter, and don’t always expect any profound wisdom from Mark Millar.
(via The Mary Sue and io9)
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