Michel Gondry is known for having a particular approach to directing actors, where the search for spontaneity and authenticity is at the center of his staging.
While filming Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), he constantly put his actors in unforeseen situations to get spontaneous reactions. Jim Carrey appreciated this way of working but found that Gondry often went too far.
One scene in particular triggered the actor’s anger. During the filming of a sequence where Joel (Carrey) revisits a memory from his childhood with Clementine (Kate Winslet), the two actors must immerse themselves in a large bathtub which represents the sink in which Joel was washed when he was small.
The couple had to stay in the lukewarm water for hours while filming the scene.
Despite her experience of aquatic filming ( Titanic… ), Kate Winslet ends up feeling unwell.
She warns Gondry that she is nauseous and dizzy. But the director wants to continue shooting and refuses to interrupt the scene.
Kate Winslet will eventually feel unwell and pass out in the water. Jim Carrey will be outraged by Gondry’s behavior and will yell at him in front of everyone.
Years later, recalling the incident, Michel Gondry said: “Jim was so angry that I thought he was going to come to blows. I even said to him: “Are you going to punch me in the face?” »
This won’t be the only time during the filming where the two men will be at loggerheads.
Generally, Gondry remains calm when an angry Jim Carrey yells at him. But during a particularly intense argument, the director will also start shouting as loudly as his star.
“I started screaming too. I told him, “Jim, if you keep yelling at me, I’m going to hate you. And if I hate you, I can’t work with you anymore.” »
Under these conditions, the end of filming must probably have been a relief for both men.
Asked how they left each other at the end of filming, Jim Carrey laconically replied: “Michel and I had a fist fight in the street. »
Quip or authentic anecdote? We cannot say.
Jim Carrey and Michel Gondry were in any case subsequently reconciled, because they worked together again in 2018 on the series Kidding .