Sonic 3 star Jim Carrey's "specific requests" for new alter ego's appearance

It's a terrific dual performance that gives Carrey plenty of opportunity to showcase his legendary talents for slapstick and physical comedy, and returning director Jeff Fowler was delighted to give him such a great role – even if there were a few logistical issues to iron out at first.

"I mean, it certainly came with a lot of questions about how we were even going to handle this just from a technical standpoint," he explained in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.

"But Jim's such a pro and so talented and can do anything. Honestly, I don't think anybody had any concern that he wasn't going to be able to pull this off."

He added: "And so it really just came down to just kind of laying it all out, designing the scenes, just talking about Gerald as a character, and just building his look."

And it turns out that building the look of the character was something that Carrey himself was heavily involved in, with the star giving some "really specific requests" when it came to designing the prosthetics and overall image.

"We didn't wanted him to just look like a clone of Ivo, just, like, with a grey mustache and some wrinkles," he said. "We wanted [him] to feel like a unique character, so that you really bought these two Robotniks as separate, unique characters.

"But he made the whole process so easy, because he's brilliant, and the ability to do two sides of the same scene is such a big ask.

"But I was so excited that he said yes, because it really is like, I don't know what we would have done if he hadn't been up for it, because everyone was just so excited about the idea."

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Of course, the idea that Carrey might have said no to the role wasn't completely outside the realms of possibility, especially given he had previously gone on record to state that he was considering retiring from acting in 2022.

Speaking to Access Hollywood, he explained that he was fairly serious about giving up the job, although he did concede that: "If the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink that says to me that it’s going to be really important for people to see, I might continue down the road."

Well, clearly Sonic 3 matched that description, and Fowler said that he always felt relatively certain Carrey would come on board.

"I felt like the idea was so great that there was no chance of him turning it down," he said.

"So fortunately, I was right, and I don't like to think about what would have happened if it wasn't right.

"But no, that was literally the first discussion we had, and I knew that this is what the movie was going to be, because we knew Gerald was such an important part of the Shadow story, that to pitch him and to get him excited, I had done some artwork.

"I always try and have some visuals in my back pocket, because I think it's much easier to get excited about an idea, and you can show him, you know, some scenes from the movie and what this might look like with these sort of two Robotniks going into battle, you know, back-to-back and getting into trouble. So, yeah, I'm just very happy he said yes!"

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is released in UK cinemas on Thursday 26th December 2024.

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