'Don't file me under G for Goofy'

PLAY back the tape of the interview and a man's voice can be heard whispering "I like you better than all the others". The Jim Carrey circus is in town and, in common with that other screen funny man Robin Williams, he's determined to give a performance rather than an interview.

He and director Tom Shadyac - with whom he's had two of his biggest hits, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Liar Liar - are seated in front of a hundred-or-so journalists from around the world to talk about their latest hit Bruce Almighty.

In this, he gets to play at being God as an exasperated newsman who complains to the Almighty that he could do a better job of running the world. Currently, Carrey is taking over the press conference by whispering endearments into many of the recorders laid out on the table in front of him.

You'd like to believe the Ontario-born comedian when he says he doesn't feel the need to be funny. His refusal to take anything seriously and generally muck about makes a mockery of his remark that "I'm never going to let anyone put me in a box and file under G for goofy".

This manic behaviour may be a reflection of his insecurity or nervousness, though goodness knows why he should feel either of those emotions. He's one of the most consistently successful movie stars in Hollywood, well able to overcome the odd box office flop. Despite mixed reviews, Bruce Almighty opened at number one in the US charts and is currently just shy of having taken $200m and is well on the way to being the biggest comedy of the year.

Of course, Carrey might have preferred that more serious projects, Man In The Moon and The Majestic, had proved equally successful. He can take comfort from being the top box office star in his field. How does it feel? "That's like an all-you-can-eat salad bar," he says.

Mostly, Shadyac is relegated to sitting back and letting his friend Jim work his way through his comedy act, something he's being perfecting since going to Toronto at the age of 15 to work comedy clubs. After TV and small roles in films, including Earth Girls Are Easy and the Dirty Harry thriller The Dead Pool, he finally became a screen headliner in his own right with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

His rubber-face, loose-limbed comedy talent has seen him became the US cinema's top funny man. At long last, he's able to enjoy the achievements earned in his ten-year, pre-Ace Ventura apprenticeship and seems to have come to terms with success.

"I'm enjoying my life," says Carrey. "The fame part was a bit of a freak-out for a while. There are times, when you're in a vulnerable place, it's not so great to be special and known by everybody. But I'm good with my life now. At a certain point I decided to pick it up and wear it.

"I don't feel any pressure to be funny. I'm funny because I want to be funny. I can sit in a room for an hour and you guys can go away and make me much funnier."

One of God's speeches in Bruce Almighty, offering advice on surviving life, came out of his own experiences as a 19-year-old comic playing the New York clubs. A bartender told young Jim he had "a divine spark" and had to protect it.

"It's not what I say or what I do, but why people hang out with me. That's why I put it in the movie, there are times I've forgotten about it," he explains.

"It's more difficult not to protect it. If you go down the wrong road, things get tough. When I'm on beam, everything is easy. When I'm right with myself and have the right things in my life, it's incredible the monsoon of blessings that come to me. I've been so lucky in my life."

By this time, Carrey is sounding worryingly serious as he admits that he's lost sight of what's important in the past. "It's like waking up on the wrong side of the bed. You think, 'why is everybody against me?'," he adds.

Fortunately, a question about whom he'd bestow with God-like powers snaps him out of his serious mood. "That Beckham dude," he replies. Cinemagoers tend to ignore him whenever he's been less loony and more sober on screen. The Truman Show, as a man whose whole life is a TV reality show, was probably the nearest he's come to fusing the comic and the dramatic, and having a hit.

"I love play acting," he says. "I love pretending. I love telling stories. Whether they're comedic or whatever, it doesn't matter to me. Tom and I get together and have a hoot. We have so much fun on a day-to-day basis I wish there were cameras on the set all the time. Hopefully, that comes over on the screen.

"Equally, I enjoy telling a good story in a dramatic sense. I don't just stay in the hotel saying, 'I am the big king of comedy'. I actually listen to people, although I know it doesn't seem that I do.

"The two are coming together, these two polar opposites are coming together in projects. There are some serious moments in these films, and I wouldn't be able to do that if I hadn't done the serious roles I've done."

At this point, for reasons that remain unclear, Carrey begins reciting Psalm 23. After the first few lines of The Lord Is My Shepherd, he's challenged to complete the psalm - and does so. It's a surreal moment in an already madcap event.

LIKE Bruce, he's been to dark places in real life. Think of the type of occasion when you raise your hands and eyes to the sky, demanding: "Why me, God?". Generally, it's about a woman, he says.

"Love lost, love yearned for, love whatever. That's generally what brings men to their knees. There are absolutely dark places I've been to many times in my life. The only way to get out of it is to look at what I have and what's been given to me."

He maintains that the "exit from agony" is always there if you look. He advocates making a list, literally counting your blessings by listing things for which you have reason to be grateful.

"If everybody did that before they went to bed at night, there would be no unhappy people," says Carrey.

l Bruce Almighty (12A) previews in selected cinemas tonight and Sunday, and goes on general release on June 27 The Cable Guy is on Channel Four tonight, 9.45pm