North StarsJim Carrey withdraws support from ‘Kick-Ass 2′ over movie’s portrayal of violence
Despite being one of the stars of the upcoming comic book actioner "Kick-Ass 2," Jim Carrey is has come out in opposition of the film. In light of the Sandy Hook tragedy in December, the 51-year-old Canadian actor has now publicly condemned movie, about a group of regular Joes who fight crime due.
"I did Kickass a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence," Carrey tweeted. This, despite the fact that his character, Colonel Stars and Stripes, doesn't even use bullets.
The Ontario native apologised to the other people involved with the film, who include stars Chloe Grace Moretz and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, director Jeff Wadlow and comic book writer Mark Millar.
"I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart," Carrey concluded.
So how violent is "Kick-Ass 2"? Very, as Millar wrote in response to Carrey on his website.
"Yes, the body-count is very high, but a movie called Kick-Ass 2 really has to do what it says on the tin," Millar wrote. "A sequel to the picture that gave us HIT-GIRL was always going to have some blood on the floor and this should have been no shock to a guy who enjoyed the first movie so much."
Millar expressed how "baffled" he was by Carrey's change of heart. "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," he wrote.
While the comic book scribe added that he is "horrified by real-life violence (even though I'm Scottish)," Millar points out that his film is not a documentary.
"This is fiction and like Tarantino and Peckinpah, Scorcese and Eastwood, John Boorman, Oliver Stone and Chan-Wook Park, Kick-Ass avoids the usual bloodless body-count of most big summer pictures and focuses instead of the CONSEQUENCES of violence, whether it's the ramifications for friends and family or, as we saw in the first movie, Kick-Ass spending six months in hospital after his first street altercation," he wrote.
In conclusion, Millar wrote that he had "never quite bought the notion that violence in fiction leads to violence in real-life" and that the storytelling toolbox, which often includes guns and ammo, should be respected.
"Kick-Ass 2 is fictional fun so let's focus our ire instead on the real-life violence going on in the world," he wrote.
"Kick-Ass 2" is out August 16.
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