When Jim Carrey spent the MTV Awards posing as Jim Morrison
Jim Carrey is one of those actors you simply cannot replace. Whenever a sequel to one of his movies has gone ahead without him, it has always failed, and there is a very good reason for that. The legendary comedian is a one-of-a-kind talent, a true force of nature whose gift at physical comedy and exaggerated slapstick is practically unparalleled.
He is, apparently, thinking of retiring from the movie business, and were he to do so, he’d leave behind an incredible legacy filled with joyous comedic performances.
As well as being a slapstick king, Carrey has more range than some might think. While best-known for his hyperactive comedic roles in films like Liar Liar, Dumb and Dumber, Bruce Almighty and The Mask, he’s a gifted dramatic actor too. He is very capable of shedding his normal persona and disappearing into a very different sort of character. Most notably, his lead performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, snubbed by the Oscars, still feels outrageous all these years.
Carrey famously went full method actor when playing the comedian Andy Kaufman in the film Man on the Moon, so much so that he actually frightened those around him and even himself a little. When he made Me, Myself and Irene, which saw him return to his comedy roots, director Peter Farrelly is said to have told him, “You’re not going to live very long if you keep becoming these characters”, and bluntly told him he wouldn’t accommodate that kind of method acting.
Carrey doesn’t seem to have played a role in this way since, and that is probably for the best. Method acting can be bad for an actor’s health – just ask Daniel Day-Lewis. The number of times he damaged himself over the years with his intense method acting is rather scary. However, Man on the Moon wasn’t actually the first time Carrey ever did something like this.
Carrey showed up at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards dressed as a Jim Morrison-esque hippie and acted as this character for the entire ceremony – even when accepting an award for his performance in The Truman Show.
Carrey’s performance as the hippie was very transformative and funny, and his speech was certainly more memorable and unique than most award show speeches are. As such, it was a very entertaining little stunt. Even at award shows, Carrey still can’t stop making us all laugh.
