Aside from advertising himself as the "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World" well before it briefly became commonplace for men and women to fight each other in the squared circle, Andy Kaufman had an extensive feud with professional wrestling legend Jerry "The King" Lawler, one that saw the two entertainers get into a heated altercation on a 1982 episode of "Late Night with David Letterman." That rivalry, however, was a work, and Kaufman and Lawler were friends in real life, as is often the case with two wrestlers pretending to hate each other in the name of kayfabe. This fact was apparently lost on Jim Carrey during the making of "Man on the Moon," as Lawler, who played himself in the film, recalled to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in 2020.
As quoted by 411Mania, Lawler said on Austin's "Broken Skull Sessions" in 2020 that he complained to Milos Forman about Carrey's method acting, stressing to the director that the actor should have been aware of Lawler and Kaufman's real-life friendship. "And he goes, 'Oh, Jerry. Jerry. He's the 800-pound gorilla. What can I do?' And that was the truth at that time," the WWE Hall of Famer continued. "He was the top draw, he was like The Rock today, he was the top name in Hollywood. And he got it in his head, I don't know if you call it method acting or whatever, he was going to channel Andy Kaufman. He became Andy Kaufman for these 80 days that we were on the set filming this movie, so it was crazy."
According to Lawler, there was even a point where Carrey hurled a glass bottle filled with orange juice in his direction (via The Independent). Fortunately, "The King" escaped what could have been a serious injury as the bottle barely missed him.
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