HOLLYWOOD -- It doesn't take much coaxing to get Jamie Kennedy to talk about his battle scars -- both physical and psychological.
In his new movie Son of the Mask, Kennedy literally bounces off walls when his dog brings home an ancient mask of mischief.
It's only natural to ask if Kennedy was injured doing any stunts.
"I got this huge gash in my leg one day," he says, pulling up his pant leg to reveal a rather nasty scar. The star injured his leg filming the flick's dazzling musical number.
"It took us weeks to film the dance sequence. It was at the end of one of our 17-hour days," recalls Kennedy, who was hooked to wires so his dance moves would defy gravity.
"I thought I was going to do one move and the wire guys thought we were doing a different one, so I was taken by surprise and smashed my leg against a step."
At first the rest of the dancers and crew thought Kennedy was fooling around, but that notion was short lived.
"It was so painful I started to cry," he says. "In seconds it was like Stand By Me. Everyone on the set started to cry."
It's not too surprising Kennedy was asked to star in Son of the Mask, given his brand of manic comedy has often been compared to Jim Carrey's.
"I was really nervous when I finally signed on to Son of the Mask because I am a huge fan of Jim Carrey. I didn't want to tarnish the great work he did on The Mask."
The two ran into each other at the Teen Choice Awards two years ago and Carrey gave Kennedy his blessing.
"He said he was pleased it was me that was doing the sequel. That was a huge relief."
Kennedy, 34, hopes Son of the Mask will bring some much-needed momentum to his career. He's struggled with cameos in Dead Poets Society, Romeo & Juliet, and As Good as it Gets. His scenes in Boogie Nights ended up on the cutting room floor.
"I was really squashed coming up. Like the one on my leg, those are scars that won't go away easily," says Kennedy, who insists "It's an actor's curse to be psychotic and sensitive. We tend to remember all the bad reviews we get and dismiss the good ones."
The good reviews came with Scream and Kennedy's role as video geek Randy Meeks.
"Scream definitely put me on the map, but you gotta work really hard to keep yourself there," admits Kennedy.
That's why he created The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, a reality show similar to Candid Camera.
It increased his profile with young people and Kennedy was offered Malibu's Most Wanted, in which he played a rich, white kid who thought he was a black rapper.
"I really thought Malibu's Most Wanted would be a much bigger hit, but I got killed on that one," admits Kennedy.
"The movie was made for young black guys and it was old white guys who ended up reviewing it. They really didn't get it."
Kennedy has a much better feeling about this flick.
"The producers first came to me in the summer of 2003 for a summer 2004 opening, but I wasn't available.
"They could have gone with someone else but they decided to wait for me. They even moved the production from Vancouver to Australia because it became a winter shoot and we needed it to be set in the summer."
Though the movie relies heavily on computer generated effects, Kennedy is quick to point out when he wears the mask it's all him and not a computer.
"It took two hours to put that make up on me. There is nothing digital about it which made it so much more exciting for me to work with."
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