In a new interview with Variety, The Weeknd takes time out of talking about his new album, After Hours, to reveal how he spent his 30th birthday hanging out with his childhood hero, Jim Carrey. The Canadian artist credited Carrey’s 1994 comic book comedy film The Mask with inspiring him to become an entertainer as it was his first film. Incidentally, decades later, the two were introduced at a party and turned out to be not only mutual fans of each other’s work, but also neighbors in LA.
“The Mask was the first film I ever went to see in a theater — my mom took me when I was 4, and it blew me away,” The Weeknd explains. “I texted him the address of my condo in L.A., and he said, ‘I can literally see your place from my balcony,’ and we got out telescopes and were waving to each other. When I told him about my mom taking me to see The Mask, he knew the theater!”
He continues with an explanation of how Carrey helped him celebrate his birthday. “Anyway, on my [30th] birthday, he called and told me to look out my window, and on his balcony he had these giant red balloons, and he picked me up and we went to breakfast. It was surreal. Jim Carrey was my first inspiration to be any kind of performer, and I went to breakfast with him on my first day of being 30.”
It’s definitely one of those “only in LA” stories, but it’s also pretty fun to think about not just these two popular performers being friends and neighbors, but also the idea of them just having telescopes laying around the house. It only makes sense that an artist who once called himself “Starboy” and the Man On The Moon actor would both share an interest in astronomy.
Read Variety‘s full profile of The Weeknd here.