One of the best movies chronicling one of the greatest comedians of all time was released on this day in wrestling history, and it covered one of the greatest storylines in history.
But there was so much more to is than that.
While Jim Carrey did an amazing job, the attention to detail and accuracy by those making it really brought the movie to life, especially with Jerry Lawler playing himself.
He and Andy Kaufman had one of the greatest non-pure wrestling feuds before they became common place, and they did it with such precision everyone thought Kaufman really injured his neck.
But not everything was peaches and crème on the set as there was friction between Carrey, who played Kaufman, and Lawler.
Friction on set
We often hear about actors not getting along with each other or with the directors, but things took an odd turn in “Man on the Moon” as Lawler claimed Carrey took getting into character to another level.
Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the following transcript.
“There was never a good relationship. The problem was Jim Carrey, he went into characters for 8- days and, in his mind, he really believed he was channeling Andy Kaufman and that Andy’s spirit or soul went into his body and that he was a combination of Jim and Andy.
“When he channeled Andy Kaufman for those 80 days, Andy never left and Jim Carrey has never been the same since and he is so weird and strange. It really affected his whole mentality making that movie about Andy.
“When we were doing that movie, I remember that I had to go to the director, and he was a big-time director (Milos Forman). I said to Milos, ‘Does this freaking guy realize that Andy and I were friends?’ He treated me so badly during this thing. He thought Andy and I really despised each other.” – Jerry Lawler, AL.com interview April 3, 2018.
This reminds us of the stories about Heath Ledger getting into the right frame of mind to play the Joker, but obviously this was no where near as severe.
It could’ve been a simple misunderstanding between the two or even their different takes on things. There are reports that the two have talked since and reconciled to a point.
We hope that’s true and they managed to move past any dispute, perceived or otherwise.
This day in wrestling history is so much more than a wrestling angle, a comedic gimmick, or dispute. In many ways, this was a merging of two worlds that Vince McMahon would pioneer years later in the WWE.
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