Hanging onto the past: How Jim Carrey prophesied his own downfall
Hollywood can be the creator of dreams for burgeoning young stars looking to become global movie icons, but it can also be a brutal industrial machine that exploits, chews and spits out talent once it’s stopped having fun with them. This is how the influential 1990s comedian and actor Jim Carrey sees his career on the silver screen, falling from his dizzying industry heights shortly after the turn of the new millennium, a star that seemed destined to nestle in the galaxies of greatness fell short.
It is, indeed, difficult to forget just how beloved Carrey was when he made his industry ascension, providing a level of frenetic performance that perfectly matched the vibrancy of the ‘90s. A manic comedian with a fondness for impressions, Carrey became a movie star in 1994 when he released a trio of genuine comedy classics, including Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber.
Things remained stable for the actor throughout the remainder of the decade, with Carrey even venturing into new realms of dramatic performance with such movies as The Truman Show and Man on the Moon before the ‘90s came to a close. But, without the youthful spark of his early career, Carrey failed to maintain momentum and reinvent himself as a new kind of movie star, struggling to keep afloat away from such occasional hits as 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Approaching his 40th birthday in 2001, Carrey sat down with Film Threat to discuss his career to date, as well as the upcoming release of the religious comedy Bruce Almighty. Though enthusiastic about his time in Hollywood throughout the interview, Carrey also showed shades of the stoic person he would become known for in contemporary cinema.
“There is definitely a feeling of ‘is what I’m doing worthwhile?” Carrey noted about his career to date in 2001, “Are people being touched? Is it making any difference at all? Am I serving somebody?’ You don’t want to end up at the end going what I did was all for me, and that’s it. That’s a huge concept I’m dealing with”.
Continuing in his stoicism, he adds, “I hope I can be brave about ageing and dignified about it because so much of this business is trying to hang on to something rather than be who you are.”
As his career has continued, Carrey has become a hermit, particularly in comparison to his previous personality, remaining quiet and personal in relation to anything pertaining to his private matters. But, with that being said, he has been vocal on several occasions in voicing his dissatisfaction with the Hollywood machine and the brutal effect it had on his mental health, even going so far as to call the industry “spineless en masse” following the events of the infamous Will Smith Oscars slap.
This transition from being a young global movie star to an older Hollywood stalwart is something Carrey struggled with, looking up to acting peer Tom Hanks as inspiration. “I think Tom Hanks has done that really well,” Carrey said in reference to this transition, “He’s not afraid to take roles that are mature, and I’m not going to be either if people allow me to do it. If they enjoy seeing it, then I’ll do it. I want to do certain things in certain ways. I want the camera to come in and see the wrinkle and see whatever. I want that to be okay. Because if it isn’t, I’ll become a real phoney”.
But comedy is an ever-changing beast, and Carrey, quite simply, failed to adapt to its demands while the likes of Will Ferrell came in and made the genre their own with a new brand of comedy that riffed off the silliness of the former’s style. Trying to maintain the puerile shtick of his early career didn’t quite work when the actor was edging into his 40s, and Carrey didn’t give himself the necessary dramatic roles that would have allowed him to express the “wrinkles” he describes above.
Looking over his modern filmography, it’s clear that Carrey hasn’t been able to adapt like Hanks has, with the actor preferring to “hang on” to his once-popular ’90s image, a destiny he previously swore not to follow. Indeed, his most famous and celebrated contemporary role has come as Doctor Eggman in the Sonic movies, yet this character wouldn’t feel at all out of place in the 1990s, with Carrey playing the character as if he were the protagonist in The Mask, using his same old familiar expressionistic physical comedy and nothing more.
