Jim Carrey names the greatest comedy actor of all time: “I hear he wasn’t a happy guy”
Every comedian is inspired by at least one person who came before them, and Jim Carrey is no different, even if his distinctive style of rubber-faced pratfalling didn’t exactly have many precedents.
Performers like Carrey, Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, and more are all distinct in their own way, and nobody else can do what they did as well as they did it, but even virtuosos are indebted to previous generations for helping them shape their signature styles.
One thing the Ace Ventura and Dumb and Dumber star has in common with many other stars who built their careers on tickling ribs and splitting sides is that he’s often given off the airs of a tortured genius, which has become such a rite of passage for comic actors that it borders on cliché by this point.
Whether it’s his existential ramblings, the ludicrous lengths he went to in order to embody Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon, or his outbursts on the set of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Carrey has often had his difficult moments, but since he’s semi-retired and doesn’t seem interested in making anything other than Sonic the Hedgehog sequels, he seems happy with where he’s at.
With that in mind, it makes sense that one of his foremost inspirations was a tortured genius themselves, one who was just as likely to give a barnstorming performance under multiple different guises as they were to make life a misery for a director, cast, or crew, by turning into a terror on a whim.
“I definitely was affected by Peter Sellers,” he explained to Black Film. “I loved Peter Sellers’ movies growing up. I was like, crazy. Pink Panthers, everything. A Shot in the Dark is one of my favourites of all time. And Peter Sellers, I hear he wasn’t a happy guy.”
That’s putting it lightly, with the Academy Award-nominated actor making life a misery for anyone who encountered him on a bad day, with his preposterous tales of his behind-the-scenes behaviour making almost everyone else who’s ever been a dickhead on a production look like a saint by comparison.
As much as Carrey adores and was inspired by the Dr Strangelove icon, the admiration was strictly professional. “Apparently, he was incredibly unhappy, and really nasty to be around, and didn’t have a personality, couldn’t find his own personality,” he said. “I have my own personality. I don’t have to be on all the time, so I hope that separates me a little bit from that fate.”
Apart from the whole Man on the Moon thing, when he was definitely ‘on’ all the time, Carrey hasn’t succumbed to the same pitfalls as Sellers. Not many have, to be honest, even though the two-time Golden Globe winner is far from the only modern-day comedy actor who holds him in such high esteem.
