Jim Carrey is Scrooge

MANILA, Philippines - Casting Jim Carrey as Scrooge seems such a good idea you wonder why no one thought of it before. Fortunately director Robert Zemeckis did think of it and the result is Disney’s A Christmas Carol, which finds the actor playing the ill-tempered miser who is haunted by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come and taught the true meaning of the holiday season.

Carrey actually plays all three ghosts as well, while several of his fellow cast members, who include Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright Penn and Bob Hoskins, also have multiple roles.

Below are excerpts from an interview with Carrey:

A Christmas Carol was published more than 150 years ago. Why do you think it’s still popular?

It’s one of the greatest stories of transformation and redemption ever written and its themes are truly universal. I think everyone can relate to the idea of someone who doesn’t feel loved and therefore doesn’t return love. Scrooge is faced with looking at his life, at the life he’s had and how his life is going to be if he doesn’t change, and of course that’s shown in a very fantastical way with all these ghosts who visit him, but who hasn’t had a glimpse of that in their own lives? Who hasn’t looked at the future and gone “Wow! I have to get it together!”

 Scrooge is an iconic character. What was the best part of playing him?

I really love getting inside the head of a character, which probably sounds like a cliché but I’ve always liked psychology and trying to understand why people become who they are.

What do you think is a moral behind A Christmas Carol?

I think the moral of the tale is to love: To love yourself and to love the people around you and to know that you can make a difference in someone else’s life.