Jim Carrey says that he came out of retirement for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 because he needed the money.

Carrey was speaking on the red carpet before the Sonic premiere in London on Tuesday, and was asked why he had returned to the franchise after apparently quitting acting two years ago. He replied: “I came back to this universe because, first of all, I get to play a genius, which is a bit of a stretch. And, you know, it’s just … I bought a lot of stuff and I need the money, frankly.”

Carrey has played the series’ chief villain Dr Robotnik in all three Sonic films, with the previous instalments having been released in 2020 and 2022. However in an interview with Access Hollywood in 2022 Carrey said he had “done enough” acting and was “fairly serious” about retiring. “I really like my quiet life and I really like putting paint on canvas and I really love my spiritual life and I feel like … I have enough.”

Carrey explored his love of painting and sculpture in the 2017 documentary I Needed Color but his efforts were not always entirely appreciated, with the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones describing his artwork as “astonishingly bad” and “a joke”.

In the Access Hollywood interview Carrey suggested that he might reconsider “if the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink that says to me that it’s going to be really important for people to see”. On being asked on Tuesday if Sonic 3 was such a script, Carrey said, jokingly, “That might have been hyperbole.”