Two-Face and Riddler looked like they had a blast together during Batman Forever, but off-camera, Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey's relationship was anything but amiable. Carrey hasn't been shy in the past about talking about how Jones hated working with him, but now the comedy star has gone into more detail on the encounter where Jones' unpleasantness was on full display. One day during Batman Forever's production, Carrey found out that Jones was eating at the same restaurant as him. He went to greet his co-star, which caused the blood in Jones' face to drain. Carrey continued:
And he got up shaking --- he must have been in mid-'kill me' fantasy or something like that. And he went to hug me and he said, 'I hate you. I really don't like you.' And I said, 'What's the problem?' and pulled up a chair, which probably wasn't smart. And he said, 'I cannot sanction your buffoonery.'
Tommy Lee Jones bluntly summarizing his hatred for Jim Carrey in such an archaic fashion is weird enough, but what's even stranger is that Jones expressed disapproval of Carrey's antics before they were going to shoot the biggest scene they had together in Batman Forever. After Carrey recalled this encounter during his recent appearance on Norm MacDonald Live, the show's eponymous host posited that Jones might have been jealous that Carrey was the center of attention on set. After all, Batman Forever was in principal photography months after Carrey became a comedy movie star thanks to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Mask. But Carrey had a different take on Jones' grumpy demeanor, saying:
He might have been uncomfortable doing that work, too. That's not really his style of stuff.
The two actors haven't worked together since, and even with their bodies of work usually being vastly different, as Jim Carrey pointed out, I can't help wondering if there's been a time where Tommy Lee Jones avoided a project simply because there was a possibility Carrey could be involved with it. If Jones couldn't tolerate such "buffoonery" on one movie, you can bet he wouldn't be thrilled about having to go through that a second time.
As for Batman Forever, while it's not one of the more well-received of the Caped Crusader's movies, Riddler and Two-Face were one of the more interest villain pairings. Carrey's Riddler was clearly inspired by Frank Gorshin's iteration of the question-obsessed antagonist from the 1960s Batman TV series, while Jones' Two-Face had more of a Joker twist compared to his comic book counterpart. Together those two nearly defeated Batman and the newly-debuted Robin, but in the end, they were defeated, with Two-Face meeting a spiky demise and Riddler being driven permanently insane.
It's been more than 20 years since Batman Forever's release, and both Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey's acting careers are still chugging along. Jones can next be seen in Just Getting Started, which hits theaters on December 8, while Carrey will next star in the TV series Kidding, which will air sometime in 2018.
