Jim Carrey stands by 'ugly' Sarah Sanders portrait: 'I drew her in essence'

Jim Carrey didn’t say his controversial painting of Sarah Sanders was ugly — you did.

While the actor was promoting his new Showtime series, Kidding, at the Television Critics Association press tour on Monday, Carrey talked about his politically charged paintings that have been drawing attention for months.

“It’s my reflex to what I’m seeing I don’t like,” he told the crowd of journalists. “It’s just a civilized way of dealing with it, I think. To express it and to kind of get onboard with as many other voices as possible that are shouting from the rooftops.”

Carrey was skewered in March for one unflattering portrait in particular that seemed to resemble the White House press secretary.

People on Twitter called the comedian “sexist” and a “bully” for his depiction of Sanders. Her father and former governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, even tweeted that Carrey was a “Pathetic BULLY, sexist, hater, bigot & ‘Christaphobe.’”

“When I did the Sarah Huckabee Sanders, everybody came out and said, ‘The horrendousness. The ugliness.’ I didn’t say ugly. I didn’t say anything. I drew her essence,” defended Carrey. “To me, ugly is an inside job.”

The Ace Ventura star said he was motivated to do these drawings because he “can’t just watch this nightmare unfold.”

“I have to alchemize it into something that is at least creative and decent,” he continued. “Even if it’s crass at times, it’s the crass that I’m expressing that everyone wants to express but can’t necessarily do so in their own lives. So when I stick a flag in Trump’s ass it’s because that’s what everyone is seeing. They’re seeing him owned, and I have to express that. And sometimes that’s the most crass way that I can express it because I’m done with it.”

Carrey has done edgy portraits of Mike Pence, Sean Hannity, Marco Rubio, and Rick Gates.

And of course, President Trump.

Despite Trump’s tweet-happy fingers, Carrey hasn’t gotten any feedback on his work from POTUS.

“He probably loves them on some level,” Carrey exclaimed. “I’m sure it’s insulting and it probably pissed him off. But at the same time, we’re dealing with a narcissist, so it’s not always a straight shot. You can do something that’s really horrible to him, but because he’s just getting a lot of attention, horrible is alright.”

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