The first thing I notice about the always impeccably turned out Jim Carrey is the, now flowing, hair. "Yes, I'm growing my hair," he replies with his trademark grin. "I've been locked in a room literally twenty-four hours a day for the last week!" I must say that the longer locks do suit him, but, no doubt, they'll not be around for long as he'll probably have to have them cut for his next role. Anyway, it does seem that Jim has had quite a bit of time to himself recently, not only to grow his hair, but also to simply take some time to himself and look at his life now. Is this so? "I did take some time off - to live," he says. "I wanted to take ten months off and just... just 'be' and read and do things that are normal and not concentrate on output and, you know. I mean, when you get in this mode, it's all output and, you know, three months is a limit for a person like me. It's just not possible to sit with yourself and I... basically, it's a carousel of thought, you know, and nothing really gets solved. Things just get re-thought over and over again, but I also feel like movies are so hyped these days. It's not like it used to be. Jimmy Stewart used to make eight movies in a year. I mean, literally, and..., but they didn't have this worldwide press thing going on and this worldwide hype for everything, you know., so I believe that I'm an interesting person, but you could get sick of me."

'The Truman Show' is being hailed by many as Jim Carrey's 'first serious film'. While I don't exactly agree with that description, I do recognise that this is a MORE serious role for the star. He is more restrained in this film, and doesn't pull so many wacky faces, or rely on physical comedy so much. Was this his decision, or was it thrust upon him by the nature of the project? "It was mostly the nature of the project," Carrey says. "I mean, I consider myself an actor and even when I did stand-up comedy, I set up ideas and then played out the characters, you know, so that's definitely been a vehicle for me and it's part of my nature to want to make people laugh, which I will never deny. I don't look back on my work and say 'Well, that was substandard', because I believe that the characters that I've done so far have been completely fitting with the tones of those movies. I am in a position, fortunately for myself, that I am getting offered scripts that aren't just, you know, two-dimensional kind of whacked-out characters. There's a lot of stuff coming... I don't want to go back and do that thing again. There's a rainbow in all of us and we're lucky if we get to show three colours, but I'm up to five now and I'm very lucky."

In Jim Carrey's case, the trappings of fame are obvious - on top of worldwide recognition for his chosen career, he enjoys huge fortune and all it brings: a massive Hollywood home, fancy cars, gorgeous women (current on/off wife actress, Lauren Holly being a sure sign of that!), and as many hangers-on carrying out his every desire as he wants . Jim has all this for sure, yet he still seems more down-to-earth than many big names, even though he actually commands more money-per-performance than stars such as Bruce Willis. How does he manage this? "Well, I can't criticise people like Bruce Willis or something for having twenty bodyguards around them, because they portray an image that challenges people's masculinity," he says. "They do something in the movies that says 'I'm a tough guy, you know' and they're going to have people come out of the woodwork and say 'OK tough guy, prove it!' "I can't really criticise him, though," he admits. "I don't really have that image. I can't be without the 'I'm here - look at me' attitude, though. We all have that. I can't be here without that. I mean, if we didn't have that, there's no reason, you know?" Could Jim ever live without it, then? "Yeah, I think so," he says. "Someday."

It's fair to say that many people thought Jim's career was on a landslide after the relative failure of 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective II'. However, surprising everyone, he came back last year with the huge hit, 'Liar, Liar', which firmly re-established him as one of the biggest box office draws in the world. Why does he think this film did so well for him? "I think it's a theme that runs through 'The Truman Show' as well, and that is that there are kind of two people fighting against each other and, you know, with this film ('The Truman Show'), I was able to play a little bit more of a reality-based character who has feelings and actual connections to the other characters and just isn't separating himself from the other characters. I was able to show everything and in 'Liar, Liar', I was able to have a relationship with my son and, at the same time, I was able to go out and completely lose my mind, because I'd surpressed my real feelings my whole life. That's a little bit of me too, you know. I come from a long line of smiling people who don't want to burden you with their pain, so that was real. I think people pick that up."

Now, as we previously mentioned, 'The Truman Show' is all about a man who unwittingly has his whole life broadcast on television. This hasn't happened yet in reality, but does Jim think we are moving towards this at all? "Absolutely!," he agrees. "The 'Jerry Springer' show! You want to see people out of control, want to beat each other up and that's - Jerry Springer! This is real people with real grudges really hitting each other, and there's a ton of shows on there that basically show the real world. We're really fascinated with people's real lives and real emotions, because we've been basically fed all these images for so long that the images start to fade away and they start to betray themselves. There's a lot of reasons to be cynical about life. You've got to get past that and believe in yourself, but we've been questioning everyone's intention and our innocence has gone in that respect and we want to see reality. No more of this crap. Don't feed us this persona. We want to see who you are, because you don't help us otherwise, you know, that type of thing."

Well, we know how Jim feels about the way the real-life media world is going and after you see 'The Truman Show', you'll really understand what he means. He, himself, admits to watching a lot of television and films; after all, he has to keep up with what's going on. When he's not acting or promoting his movies, however, what else does he do to relax? What does Jim Carrey, the regular guy, get up to? "I'm so busy doing this and it makes me really happy," he says. "My life is a rollercoaster of ups and downs. I've had periods where I've taken anti-depressants, but I feel OK right now. I'm good. I feel busy and I did take some time off, and I try to get in control of this thing and not worry or care about when the release date is. I hang out with my daughter and family." "I got to go out," he states. "I got to be in contact with human beings or I'm dead. I go to Starbucks(US coffee house chain) and I do it with a careless shrug to the world - I'm not going to lose contact with people - privacy is great, but no-one wants to sit in their cave alone by themselves; they want to have the freedom to go out and know that nobody is going to take advantage of them or stuff like that. You know, I could go and live in the woods if I want to, but I chose to live here, because I love what I do. I really think there is freedom in the world, and If I'm not happy, I can get out." So there you have it - Jim Carrey, multi-million dollar movie idol, probably popping up soon in a coffee house near you!