The co-star who “scared the shit” out of Jim Carrey: “I was on my heels the whole time”
From humble sketch show beginnings on In Living Color to the king of the box office, Jim Carrey became one of the most bankable stars of the 1990s, seemingly incapable of putting a foot wrong.
One of Carrey’s biggest hits was 1994’s Dumb and Dumber, starring the rubber-faced Canadian as Lloyd Christmas, a well-meaning but incredibly stupid individual. Along with his equally unintelligent friend (who we’ll get to later), he embarks on an ill-fated road trip across the country to return what he thinks is a briefcase full of lost money, but is actually the ransom in a kidnapping. The film’s financial success secured Carrey’s place as one of the biggest comedic stars of the 1990s, and spawned a franchise, which thus far includes a sequel, a prequel, and an animated TV show.
Directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly, AKA the Farrelly brothers, also benefited greatly from the movie, but it took a lot of hard work to stick the landing. The brothers faced issues at every turn trying to get their project off the ground, and it was only when Carrey expressed interest in playing Lloyd that things got decidedly easier. Even then, they still had trouble convincing the bigwigs about his co-star.
“We knew Jeff Daniels had a comedic sensibility, but the studio didn’t see it,” they told The Guardian, “Jim read with him and said, ‘That guy scared the shit out of me. I was on my heels the whole time. That’s got to be the guy’. We said, ‘Great. Tell the studio’. Jim called and said he wanted Jeff.”
Prior to his turn as Harry Dunne, Daniels had done comedy but wasn’t entirely wedded to the genre. His biggest roles up to that date included the Miloš Forman drama Ragtime, James L Brooks’ ‘tragicomedy’ Terms of Endearment, and the science fiction film Rain Without Thunder. In the same year that Dumb and Dumber came out, Daniels appeared in Speed, decidedly very much not a comedy. He had previously worked with Woody Allen and Mike Nichols, though, so it wasn’t like he didn’t know what a laugh was.
All the hard work to land Daniels paid off big time in the end. He and Carrey had exceptional chemistry, with the non-comedian hilariously keeping pace and outperforming the regular funnyman. The scene in which Harry has to use a broken toilet after ingesting some laxatives is a particular fan favourite, even if Daniels worried that it would end his career.
Thankfully, the sight of Daniels’ squirming on the bog only enhanced his professional appeal. Without his involvement, Dumb and Dumber would not have been the monumental success it has spawned, showing how sometimes you have to try your hardest to convince the ones who supposedly know best from making dumb and dumber decisions.
