Jim Carrey has withdrawn support for his upcoming action blockbuster, "Kick-Ass 2."
The comic actor who grew up around the Toronto area has expressed his discomfort with the amount of violence in the over-the-top comic-book adaptation, which hits theatres in August.
Carrey, who didn't have a role in the first film, portrays a vigilante called Colonel Stars and Stripes in the sequel.
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The 51-year-old has been an outspoken advocate for gun control, releasing an NRA satire called "Cold Dead Hand" back in March that lampooned late gun advocate Charlton Heston.
Via Twitter, Carrey said he made "Kick-Ass 2" before the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School and "now in all good conscience (he) cannot support that level of violence."
"My apologies to others (involved) with the film," he added. "I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart."
Mark Millar, the Scottish scribe who created the comic book on which the film is based, took to the message board on his website to respond to Carrey's comments.
"As you may know, Jim is a passionate advocate of gun-control and I respect both his politics and his opinion, but I'm baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn't in the screenplay eighteen months ago," Millar wrote in a lengthy post. "Yes, the body-count is very high, but a movie called 'Kick-Ass 2' really has to do what it says on the tin. A sequel to the picture that gave us Hit-Girl was always going to have some blood on the floor and this should have been no shock to a guy who enjoyed the first movie so much."
"Like Jim, I'm horrified by real-life violence (even though I'm Scottish), but Kick-Ass 2 isn't a documentary," he added. "Ironically, Jim's character in Kick-Ass 2 is a Born-Again Christian and the big deal we made of the fact that he refuses to fire a gun is something he told us attracted him to the role in the first place.
"Ultimately, this is his decision, but I've never quite bought the notion that violence in fiction leads to violence in real-life any more than Harry Potter casting a spell creates more Boy Wizards in real-life."
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