Jim Carrey: Ewan McGregor is a Great Kisser

Jim Carrey says the kissing scenes in his latest film, I Love You Phillip Morris, had at least one important thing going for them: Major chemistry.

"I mean, look at the guy. I have to say, he is a great kisser," Carrey, 48, tells Parade of his smooches with costar Ewan McGregor.

That's not to say Carrey – who plays an incarcerated man who falls in love with a fellow inmate – wasn't warned about potential problems with kissing a man.

"As Ewan said, 'When you're kissing another guy it can get a little prickly,'" Carrey explains. "Actually, you had to put out of your mind your own sexual preference and just try to understand that you were loving another person who just happens to be a guy. It wasn't about male or female, love is love."

Carrey, who split from longtime love Jenny McCarthy in April, says he's still facing some ups and downs in his life.

"There's always some sort of deep undercurrent running under things for me," he says "I've had peaks of kind of enlightenment where I felt like, 'Oh, wow. I've got to figure it out. This is it. Okay. I have peace. I have bliss.' And, then, boom, off the wave into the surf, and you're struggling again. I definitely have those scared to death moments, but they're what make you interesting."

I Love You Phillip Morris will finally hit theaters this weekend.

Movie Trailer: “I Love You Phillip Morris” Starring Jim Carrey & Ewan McGregor

Barring yet another delay, I Love You Phillip Morris is finally going to hit theaters on December 3rd and here is a new trailer for the highly-anticipated film starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor.

The film focuses on a love affair between a con man (Carrey) and his cellmate (McGregor). Carrey’s character commits all kinds of crazy misdeeds, like breaking out of Texas prisons four times, to be with his lover.

Morris premiered to raves at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009 but has been stuck in a distribution nightmare all year.

This trailer is the best one yet and seems to be more representative of the film than any of the previous clips. It makes me really want to see it!

Here's the Poster for the Oft-delayed Jim Carrey & Ewan McGregor Film “I Love You Phillip Morris”

Finally? Could it be true? Is I Love You Phillip Morris really going to hit theaters on December 3rd?

One good sign is a new marketing campaign has begun and this new poster has been released.

The film focuses on a love affair between a con man (Jim Carrey) and his cellmate (Ewan McGregor). Carrey’s character commits all kinds of crazy misdeeds, like breaking out of Texas prisons four times, to be with his lover.

Morris premiered to raves at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009 but has been stuck in a distribution nightmare all year.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that December 3rd is kept as it's release date!

“I Love You Phillip Morris” Delayed AGAIN!

Release of the Jim Carrey-Ewan McGregor love story I Love You Phillip Morris had been postponed again – this time by the courts!

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and focuses on a love affair between a con man (Carrey) and his cellmate (McGregor). Its release date has been pushed back several times, most recently from February to March then to April and finally to July 30th.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a California District Court judge has issued a preliminary injunction preventing the U.S. release of the indie comedy.

The movie was produced by French movie studio EuropaCorp, which licensed domestic rights to Consolidated Pictures Group. But the Luc Besson-backed EuropaCorp says it never got the full $3 million advance that Consolidated agreed to pay last year. An agreement between the two parties was amended in February to allow Consolidated to pay in three installments, but EuropaCorp says it still didn’t receive any money.

The latest target for release of the film is October.

Ewan McGregor Replaces Johnny Depp in Don Quixote Movie

Ewan McGregor has replaced Johnny Depp in filmmaker Terry Gilliam's quirky movie about Spanish literary hero Don Quixote.

Director Gilliam cast Depp as time travelling advertising executive Tony Grisoni in the film a decade ago, when it was titled The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.

A series of disasters, including financial problems and the destruction of sets, shelved production of the oddball epic, and now the Pirates of the Caribbean star has been forced to bow out, citing scheduling conflicts.

Gilliam has announced McGregor will take on the Grisoni role, opposite Robert Duvall as Quixote, stating, "There's a lot of colours to Ewan that he's not been showing recently and it's time for him to show them again.

"He's got a great sense of humour and he's a wonderful actor. He's wonderfully boyish and can be charming - when he flashes a smile, everybody melts. He wields it like a nuclear bomb!"

He's not the only replacement in the film - French actor Jean Rochefort was originally cast as Quixote.

The early disasters that crippled the film were chronicled in the 2002 documentary Lost in La Mancha.

Another New Release Date for Jim Carrey’s Gay Flick “I Love You Phillip Morris”

We recently reported that the April release of the Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor gay love story flick, "I Love You Phillip Morris" had been postponed indefinitely.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and focuses on a love affair between a con man (Carrey) and his cellmate (McGregor).

Now there is a new date that’s just been announced. Variety reports that the movie will hit theaters in limited release on July 30th then expand into more theaters a week later.

Oh good grief, they just need to release the movie already! If they think audiences or exhibitors can’t handle the gay subject matter and sex scenes, then they should just put it out on DVD and let people make up their own minds.

The Release of Jim Carey & Ewan McGregor's “I Love You Phillip Morris” is Delayed Indefinitely

If you were looking forward to finally seeing the long-awaited I Love You Phillip Morris at the end of the month, you’ll have to wait even longer.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009 and focuses on a love affair between a con man (Jim Carrey) and his cellmate (Ewan McGregor, playing the titular Phillip Morris).

The Los Angeles Times reports: Consolidated Pictures Group, the start-up that was poised to release the Sundance title, has postponed the release once again. And this time it’s indefinite. … Movies can sit on the shelf without a distributor for years, but it’s rare for a title with such high-profile stars and a fair dollop of media attention not to see the light of day.

Well, here are a few a trailers for the movie which, I hope, is not all we’ll ever see of it!

Stripping Down is a 'Rush' for Ewan McGregor

Ewan McGregor has shed his clothes for several of his films -- Trainspotting and Velvet Goldmine, to name a couple -- and he finds the experience empowering. He said: "I remember getting a kind of rush out of that first time, a slight feeling of power about it, you know?"

Ewan, who has three daughters with wife Eve Mavraki, also revealed he enjoys "kissing boys" in his movies as he likes to feel challenged as an actor.

Talking about kissing Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Velvet Goldmine, Ewan told Out magazine: "I remember when I kissed Johnny. It was just a rush at the end of the day. It was just an electrical moment, because you look around and some of the British electrician guys -- who are all mainly closeted homosexuals, I think -- were sitting around going 'F**k, no.' But I like kissing boys on screen. As a straight guy, it's quite an interesting proposition. Anything on a film set that takes you by surprise like that, that gets your blood up, is good."

He added, "I'm always interested in playing different people, in different situations. It doesn't matter to me whether someone is in love with a man or a woman. I find the idea of love and romance interesting. I'm a sucker for it. I like playing someone who's falling in love because I like the sensation of it."

Ewan McGregor Talks to Out Magazine About His Gay Roles: “I Like Kissing Boys on Screen”

With his film I Love You Phillip Morris finally coming out next month, Ewan McGregor is on the cover of Out Magazine and gives a really juicy interview about playing gay (opposite Jim Carrey) in this and other films.

Here is the complete Out Magazine article:

Sydney, Ewan McGregor’s sand-colored poodle mutt, is pooping on a well-kempt lawn in Los Angeles. He eyes the horizon, birds chirp, and McGregor readies the bag. Suddenly, a black Kerry terrier appears, held by a peroxide septuagenarian wearing a too-loose vintage Brentwood marathon T-shirt and too-tight spandex shorts. Sydney, torn by two competing passions, seems unable to decide whether to lunge immediately or finish his business. His eyes dart back and forth. Then, in a beige flash, Sydney makes up his mind, leaving the poop half in and half out. Moments later, sheepishly, tenderly, McGregor tidies Sydney up with a napkin cadged from Le Pain Quotidien. “Ah,” he murmurs quietly, “my wee man, Syd.” The tone of the day is set.

An hour later, the three of us are sitting on a picnic bench atop Inspiration Point at the summit of Will Rogers Park in Pacific Palisades. Well, two of us are sitting. McGregor’s lying on the bench, face up, bum westerly, legs spread in the air, illustrating an early professional mishap of onstage nudity. The incident in question involved one inopportunely placed vase full of water, two spills (the vase’s and, shortly thereafter, his), a racy Joe Orton farce, and a front row of British pensioners, alarmed and titillated by the fast-approaching naked rear end of the then 21-year-old Scot. “So I’m sliding toward the front row of the audience like this,” he says, “butt naked, and thinking, What of the front row? They just got my bumhole coming straight at them.” For those unlucky enough not to have been there, McGregor hasn’t been shy since.

There are two things my mother knows about Ewan McGregor: He wrote Atonement, and he loves dropping his trousers. One out of two ain’t bad. “I always try not to limit myself in all respects,” explains McGregor in a Scots brogue softened by years in London and, more recently, in Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife, Eve, and three daughters. “Sexuality is just one of them. I could understand saying ‘I would never do gratuitous nudity.’ Wait. No. I probably would. I’d probably be quite happy to.” In fact, as my mother correctly remembers, he has. Since his first full-frontal exposure -- during a rehearsal for a play about the Holocaust at Guildhall School of Music and Drama -- hardly a year has gone by without McGregor’s privates being committed to celluloid. “I remember getting a kind of rush out of that first time, a slight feeling of power about it, you know?” recalls McGregor. His butt, since its magnificent sliding debut in What the Butler Saw, has been seen by millions and his penis has appeared on-screen so often -- in Trainspotting, in The Pillow Book, in Velvet Goldmine -- it deserves its own Oscar nod.

The far-flung legend of McGregor’s penis, casting its long shadow over the Hollywood Hills -- though accurate -- distracts from a quietly courageous and wildly varied acting career. He’s not just some one-trick cock-flashing pony. That the long-delayed and finally upon us I Love You Phillip Morris -- a very good, very, very gay film slated for release in March -- isn’t an aberration but one of McGregor’s more mainstream films testifies to his unusual oeuvre. Like many of McGregor’s choices, I Love You Phillip Morris is an uneasy film. Based on a true story (and a 2003 book by Steve McVicker) the movie follows Steven Russell, played by Jim Carrey, a charming con man and an incorrigible escape artist. In 1995, during a stint in the Harris County Jail in Houston, Russell meets Phillip Morris -- played by McGregor as a blond Southern belle of a man -- in the jail’s library. Morris was reaching for a copy of The Federal Reporter on a high shelf. Their eyes met, sparks arced, Russell came on hard, and Morris, happy as a cat, purred and arched into the hand that pet him.

Had what follows not been exhaustively cataloged by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, it could easily be dismissed as fantastic prison pulp: Russell goes to prison (Theft, Case No. 618544), Russell and Morris fall in love. Russell escapes prison (Escape, Case No. 727973), finds Morris, the two live lavishly. Russell goes to prison (Aggravated Theft, Case No. 723526). Russell escapes prison, finds Morris, the two live lavishly. Russell goes to prison, escapes prison, finds Morris, the two live lavishly until Russell gets caught and goes to prison for good (Escape, Case No. 9,856-C). Russell -- Inmate No. 00760259 -- has a maximum sentence that would keep him imprisoned until July 12, 2140 -- 47,595 days after the film opens.

Despite the fact that it stars perhaps the most bankable star in Hollywood -- the worldwide gross of Carrey’s movies is more than $4 billion dollars -- and, opposite him, its most talented, I Love You Phillip Morris, has languished undistributed domestically for more than a year, even after a strong showing at its Sundance debut in 2009. “At Sundance everyone assumed it would be snapped up,” says McGregor, “but it wasn’t.” Perhaps one reason is that the central character is an unlovable (or uneasily loved) sociopathic scammer. But a more likely reason is that in cells, on bunks, on boats, before sunsets, after sunsets, on divans, over ottomans, without panning away or dissolving to white, the two men kiss, fondle, fuck, blow, suck, hold hands, dance, murmur, and eye. In short, they act like lovers do, and, because both Morris and Russell are openly gay men and their gayness seems not to trouble them in the slightest, this is a dicey commercial proposition. “There was talk,” says McGregor, “that Disney fended off the release until after A Christmas Carol came out. They didn’t want kids thinking [Carrey’s] Ebenezer Scrooge was a bender.”

When it appears on American screens, I Love You Phillip Morris will be, to some extent, down-gayed. (Or perhaps it’s ungayed, degayed, or less-gayed.) As part of a bid to find U.S. distribution, the film has been recut, leaving out some of the gayest moments. After a rather touching episode of Florida Key fellatio, for example, Morris spits over the side of the boat into the Atlantic Ocean. “There were two alternatives,” explains McGregor. “There was the spit, and there was a really nice slow swallow, where I look at him and just do a loud swallow. I really like that one, but I guess they went for the more obvious spit over the side.”

Nevertheless, I Love You Phillip Morris is loudly and insistently gay. Carrey, as Russell, sees dicks in everything: clouds, baguettes, himself. At one point, he yells, Scrooge-like, “I’m gay, gay, gay, gay, gay.” But Carrey playing gay is 80% Jim Carrey and 20% the character. In McGregor’s slightly coquettish Morris, however, there are only trace elements of Ewan McGregor. In his place, there’s a sly character, part wolf, part sheep, and wholly formed.

“I’m very keen that it’s a gay movie,” McGregor insists. “There was quite a lot of talk at Sundance that ‘Well, it’s not a gay movie. It’s a film about guys who happen to be gay.’ And I was thinking, it’s nothing but a gay movie. It’s about a gay couple, about a man’s sexuality, and he comes out. It’s not the point of the film, but let’s not pretend it’s not a gay film.”

Though I Love You Phillip Morris may be some sort of Rubicon for Carrey, McGregor has kissed boys his entire career. “The first bisexual character I played was in [1996’s] The Pillow Book. There’s tons of sex in that film. We didn’t even bother putting clothes on between scenes. I had quite a full-on sex scene with a 75-year-old Japanese guy,” he recalls. “We’re kissing, and I remember going, He’s got a mustache and that’s kind of weird. Oh! That’s definitely a scrotum. That’s odd.”

Though his silver daddy moment was somewhat lost in the Trainspotting scrum, McGregor’s next movie, Todd Haynes’s Velvet Goldmine, wherein he plays a barely disguised Iggy Pop to Jonathan Rhys Meyers’s epicene “David Bowie,” brought his propensity, willingness, and talent for kissing men to a wider audience and, in so doing, provided the raw footage for a fantasy reel of dreamy leading men locking lips. In fact, upon reflection, theirs might be about the most satisfying gay kiss ever committed to film. It’s got all you need: gold lamé, an Oscar Wilde quote (“The curve of your lips rewrite history”), the deceptive vulnerability of McGregor with his wide grin, the cruel-seeming beauty of Meyers. Oh, and eye shadow -- dark, glam pools of it. “I remember when I kissed Johnny,” says McGregor. “It was just a rush at the end of the day. It was just an electrical moment, because you look around and some of the British electrician guys -- who are all mainly closeted homosexuals, I think -- were sitting around going ‘Fuck, no.’ But I like kissing boys on screen. As a straight guy, it’s quite an interesting proposition. Anything on a film set that takes you by surprise like that, that gets your blood up, is good.”

Judging from his career, lots of things seem to get McGregor’s blood up. The actor is less guided by the usual Hollywood obsession -- the bottom line -- than by a healthy full-blooded sense of adventure. (In fact, as of 2008, he’s the official face of Adventure, a cologne by Davidoff.) Twice, McGregor has circumnavigated the globe on a motorcycle with his friend Charley Boorman, the first time latitudinally, the second time longitudinally. (The trips formed the basis of two television shows, Long Way Round and Long Way Down.) His roles are those of an inquisitive mind, hungry to feel more and also feel different, not necessarily those of an acquisitive one. And thus, his career is less a direct path to the A-list than a meandering peregrination, beset by low-grossing spurs and indie digressions. But what Hollywood might see as dead ends, McGregor considers his best work. “When it gets to the top end, they’re really reluctant to step out of any box, which is why the movies become very bland,” he confesses. “When people come up to talk about a movie like Velvet Goldmine, it’s much more interesting than talking about, for instance, Angels & Demons.”

So, though McGregor fought in the Battle of Naboo, he’s also jerked off as James Joyce (in Star Wars episodes 1 through 3 and Nora, respectively). He’s been a song and dance man in the strange Down With Love and the stellar Moulin Rouge and an action figure in Black Hawk Down. But in lesser known movies like Young Adam, Stay, The Pillow Book, Phillip Morris, and in the forthcoming movie Beginners, by indie auteur Mike Mills, McGregor gives breath and depth to characters rarely written and even more rarely lifted from the page into a body. “I’m always interested in playing different people, in different situations,” he says, sitting bolt upright, suddenly serious and eyeing the Pacific Ocean stretching below us. “It doesn’t matter to me whether someone is in love with a man or a woman. I find the idea of love and romance interesting. I’m a sucker for it. I like playing someone who’s falling in love because I like the sensation of it.” He pauses to give Syd an affectionate pat. “People do extraordinary things when they’re falling in love.” n

I Love You Phillip Morris opens on April 23rd.

Male Co-Stars Get Buss-ted

Buss-ted!

They may be costars onscreen – but it looks like these guys are still feeling the love even after the cameras stop rolling.

During the recent Parisian premiere of I Love You Phillip Morris, Jim Carrey couldn't help but plant a sweet one on Ewan McGregor. (The two play lovers in the flick.) And though he may be engaged to Katy Perry, Russell Brand was feeling warm toward his Forgetting Sarah Marshall costar, Jason Segel, at a Haitian earthquake benefit in L.A. on Tuesday. Even Josh Brolin, who played Sean Penn's archrival in Milk, couldn't suppress his affection for his former costar. How sweet!

Jim Carrey & Ewan McGregor Share A Smooch

Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor share a kiss in Paris, France on Monday, February 1th.

The 48-year-old actor and his 38-year-old co-star appear in the forthcoming film "I Love You Phillip Morris" as two prison inmates who fall for each other after sharing a cell together.

Jim and Ewan were named knights in the prestigious National Order of Arts and Letters by Minister of Culture Frederic Mitterand, who, according to ABC, declared, “I love you Jim Carrey! I love you Ewan McGregor!”

Check out the film’s trailer below:

Ewan McGregor “Quite Liked” Kissing Jim Carrey

How many times have we read about straight actors having to psych themselves out to do a gay kissing scene or hear about how they got freaked out by the stubble and on and on? Well, maybe we are seeing an end to that.

Sean Penn and James Franco totally made out in "Milk" and neither acted creeped out by it. And now you have Ewan McGregor discussing his intense kissing scenes with Jim Carrey in the upcoming film "I Love You Phillip Morris."

He told the Los Angeles Times this week that not only did he not mind kissing Carrey, he “quite liked it.”

“It’s a love story, an escape movie and a comedy, all about this man who goes to incredible lengths to be with the man he loves,” he says. “I like it because it’s a gay film, which is to say it’s a film about two men in love, and I think that’s an important element of it. But it’s not a film about them being gay. They just happen to be gay. I also got to French kiss Jim Carrey a lot, and I quite like that too.”

And really who wouldn’t? Both Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor are quite cute!

“I Love You Phillip Morris” Starring Jim Carrey & Ewan McGregor Gets Release Date: Valentine’s Day 2010

"I Love You Phillip Morris", which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and will screen at Cannes, is going to see life outside the festival circuit after all. The gay love story starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor has been acquired by Consolidated Pictures Group and will be released next Valentine’s Day.
The film is based on a true story about gay con man Steven Russell (Carrey) and his prison lover Phillip Morris (McGregor).

Here is a trailer and a clip:


I hear the love scenes are pretty steamy!

Jim Carrey Too Convincing at Gay Sex for U.S. Audiences?

Michael Musto has the goods on why the Jim Carrey - Ewan McGregor prison romance I Love You, Phillip Morris is having a hard time finding a distributor in the U.S. Musto talked to Lewis Tice of TLA, who has seen the film:

"The scene is not shocking in the sense that any body parts are actually revealed--both actors are nude, but the way the scene is shot, no pickle is on display. The surprising part is that the 'bottom' is this muscle, bearish type, who is on all fours, getting a really hard pounding by Carey. It was mostly the tone and my perception of Carey as an actor, just because I never looked at Carey in a sexual manner and he was so dedicated to giving it to the muscle-bear and the sexual tone was authentic, it caught me off guard. I eventually got over it and I think Carey is convincingly fantastic in the film. But I think most folks are used to seeing Ewan McGregor naked and engaging in man-on-man sex, but Carey, not so much. So more power to him for going there."

Towleroad.com posted last week that folks are saying the film may go straight to DVD. Hopefully not America. We need everyone to have an "open mind" and accept movies about alternative lifestyles.

Jim Carrey "Comes Out" at Sundance

Jim Carrey outed his new movie "I Love You Phillip Morris" at the Sundance Film Festival this week, taking a risk in the gay romantic comedy by sharing passionate moments with co-star Ewan McGregor.

Based on a true story, Carrey plays cop-turned-conman Steven Russell, who falls in love with his cellmate Phillip Morris (McGregor) and escapes four times from the Texas jail where he is being held in a bid to be with his partner.

For Carrey, one of Hollywood's biggest box office draws in mainstream comedies such as "Liar, Liar" and "Bruce Almighty," taking the role in an independent film like "Philip Morris" could prove to be a real gamble.

Carrey, 47, risks losing the audiences that flock to his mainstream comedies such as "Yes Man," which has grossed about $100 million at U.S. box offices since its December release.

In the past, when he has starred in a movie that is not a broad comedy, it often flops.

Carrey's serious portrayal of late comedian Andy Kaufman in the 1999 drama "Man on the Moon" tanked at U.S. box offices with only $34 million and his 2007 horror movie "The Number 23" also stumbled with $35 million.

Yet, early reviews are good for "Phillip Morris" and, for their part, Carrey, McGregor and the directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa told reporters at a Monday news conference at Sundance, the top U.S. independent film festival, that the movie should not be pigeonholed.

"I don't think it's a gay movie," Carrey said. "It really is about the lengths we go to for acceptance and love."

While McGregor has played gay roles before, Carrey has not and the comic actor acknowledged a few initial fears.

"If I were to be really honest, there's a homophobic voice that rises up inside me and goes 'Gee this is kind of scary,'" he said.

"First of all, what will people think? And second of all, will I like it? Will I like kissing Ewan?" he added with a laugh.

McGregor said he and Carrey performed intimate scenes together on the first day of filming. He described it as "strangely usual. It's not terribly much of a big deal."

"Phillip Morris" producer Andrew Lazar said he was drawn to the love story of the movie and believed it had universal appeal.

"We've all been lovesick and I think anybody, whether you're gay or straight, can identify with that," he said.

So far, critics like what they see.

Showbusiness newspaper The Hollywood Reporter said "Carrey is at his nimble best" and Daily Variety said the movie will leave "audiences both laughing and stunned."

The Times of London gave the movie four out of five stars, describing it as an "extraordinary film that serves as a reminder of just how good Carrey can be when he's not tied into a generic Hollywood crowd-pleaser."

Still, the critics suggested the film could be a hard sell to broad audiences because of the gay storyline.

The "sexual bluntness of Carrey and Ewan McGregor's onscreen romance could limit the film's exposure," wrote Daily Variety.

Source: Reuters.com