Jim Carrey provided a mellifluously voiced through line on the Weeknd’s latest album Dawn FM, delivering radio host-style narration on intro “Dawn FM,” “Out of Time,” and outro “Phantom Regret by Jim.”
But he initially declined his huge fan, now-friend, and fellow Canadian Abel Tesfaye’s request to collaborate. In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, the two-time Golden Globe-winner revealed how his collaborative relationship with the Toronto superstar came to fruition.
“He put it to me that he was doing this thing that was the radio station in purgatory, and I was like, ‘I love you, but I don’t want to do any work.’ And he said, ‘You know, you can just do it into your iPhone like that, it’s broadcast quality,’” Carrey recalled.
After some time, Jim, who described the Weeknd as “an incredible artist and a lovely person,” was unable to resist the opportunity to appear on what became one of the biggest albums of 2022.
“Then I started waking up in the middle of the night—which is what happens with me, I play in the middle of the night—and I start spitting bars, of all things, for god’s sake,” he said. “It was really funny because I fully left it to him…I said to him, ‘Use nothing at all or use a line here and there, if you want to, but I don’t have to be in it, whatever.’ He said, ‘No it’s fire, you gotta do this,’ and gave me a really beautiful place on the album, so I’m so gratified.”
When asked to share his thoughts on how 1994’s The Mask greatly inspired the Weeknd, Carrey didn’t shy away from defending the creativity behind his classic comedy movies.
“The Mask was the very first movie [the Weeknd] ever saw and kind of inspired him to want to be in this thing,” Carrey, 60, said with a laugh. “And boy, did he ever get in this thing. … It’s funny, because a lot of these films, at the time they just seemed like wacky comedies, and yet, they all had a thought behind [them], they all had a purpose behind them.”
Just before Dawn FM’s January arrival, Carrey shared that he and his “good friend Abel” listened to the record together and that he was “thrilled to play a part in his symphony.” The Weeknd replied, “Thank you for being a part of this. It’s kismet. Full circle.”
The actor also appeared in Tesfaye’s “Out of Time” video co-starring Squid Game’s Hoyeon in April. See his cameo kick off at the 3:14 mark: