It involves a tug-of-war battle between Carrey, the producers of the film and executives at the Hollywood studio financing the movie, Warner Bros, about one of the most dramatic scenes.
Carrey's character, Carl Allen, after taking a vow never to say the word "no", bungee jumps off Los Angeles' Arroyo Seco Bridge, a picturesque structure with a 40-metre drop.
Thrill-seeking Carrey was desperate to do the bungee-jump himself.
The Warner Bros suits were against it and preferred a stunt man to take his place.
The producers wanted to keep their star and studio happy.
"The studio was very apprehensive about it," said Yes Man producer, Richard Zanuck, son of Hollywood mogul and founder of the Twentieth Century Fox studio, Darryl Zanuck, recalling the off-set drama.
The three parties eventually came to an agreement.
Carrey would do the jump, but there was a condition. The condition solved the dilemma of how to finish the movie if Carrey injured himself or, gasp, died during the bungee jump.
"The only condition they made us agree to was we do it on the last day of photography," Zanuck said.
So, earlier this year, on the final day of photography for Yes Man, a bungee cord was attached to the ankles of a nervous Carrey, stunt men stayed home and cameras rolled.
Carrey survived unscathed and the studio suits breathed a sigh of relief.
"It was exhilarating," Carrey said.
It is Carrey's drive to take risks, whether it is a joke that pops into his head midway through a scene that leads him to going off script, or diving off a bridge with an oversized rubber band around his ankles, that has made him one of Hollywood's biggest stars, Yes Man director Peyton Reed said.
"Jim is the kind of actor who will dive into everything," Reed, whose previous films were the romantic comedies, The Break Up, starring Jennifer Aniston, and Renee Zellweger's Down with Love.
"Early on, when we were sitting around with the writers discussing the scene where his character jumps off the bridge, Jim said: 'I'm doing it'.
"We all said: 'Let's see. We can get a stunt man to do it' and Jim said: 'No, I'm doing it whether you guys film it or not so you may as well film it'."
Yes Man is a return for Carrey to his zany, rubber-faced slap stick comedies of the 1990s that made him the comedy genre's first $US20 million ($NZ35 million) man.
He picked up that cheque for 1996's The Cable Guy and continued to cash similar amounts for Liar Liar, Me, Myself & Irene, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Bruce Almighty.
In recent years, Carrey has switched gears, choosing darker material and dramas with mixed success, winning Golden Globes for Man on the Moon and The Truman Show and nominations for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Darker fare including The Majestic, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and 2007's The Number 23 were largely slammed by critics and underperformed at the box office.
Ask Carrey what he prefers - comedy or drama - and he slips into one of his comedy routines, contorting his face as his gives an over-the-top answer.
"I like to be both," the Canadian-born former stand-up comic replies.
"I like them to be completely tugging against each other in opposite directions and then go home and rip my hair out and say: 'You're funny!', 'You're dramatic!', 'You're funny!' 'You're dramatic!' `Noooooo!"'
Carrey then makes a large explosion noise and collapses on the table in front of him, pretending to have passed out.
Eliciting the laughs he was aiming for, Carrey gets up, fixes his hair, takes a breath and answers the question seriously.
"No, it's just creativity," he begins earnestly.
"Sometimes I'm serious and sometimes I'm funny. It all comes from the same place.
"Comedy and drama - everybody separates the two.
"It comes from the same place which is an urge to express something probably painful.
"Movies are made by people in pain for people in pain."
In Yes Man, Carrey plays miserable, depressed down-and-out bank loan officer Allen, left in a funk after his girlfriend ditches him.
Allen's life turns around when he follows the advice of a self-help guru (Terence Stamp) and deletes "no" from his vocabulary.
Allen says "yes" to every offer. Learn how to fly a plane? Yes. Take Korean lessons? Yes. Master the guitar? Yes.
When Allen's ex-girlfriend tells him to "go jump off a bridge", Allen takes her words literally and that leads to the bungee-jumping scene.
In his personal life, Carrey says he is generally a 'yes man' and jokes it is sometimes to his detriment, including his failed marriages to actresses Melissa Carrey in 1987 and Lauren Holly in 1996.
Carrey, 46, appears to have found unwedded bliss with girlfriend of three years, another actress, Jenny McCarthy.
"Most of the time the things you regret are the things you say `no' to," Carrey explained.
"When you say 'yes', at least it's a learning experience.
"I've been married twice and that was tough.
"One time I said 'yes' to putting my tongue on a nine volt battery.
"It was horrible."
Ironically, Carrey survived the much debated bungee scene without getting a scratch.
It was not the case for one of his trademark physical comedy scenes in Yes Man where he was required to fall flat on his back after colliding with a waitress in a restaurant.
"I've done falls over and over again, but something came into my head halfway through the fall like 'Wouldn't it be great if I could get all my limbs into the frame of the picture at once'," Carrey said, shaking his head.
"But I hit the ground so hard on my elbow I fractured my ribs."
Yes Man opens in New Zealand theatres January 1.
