“It could be the biggest piece of shit”: how a movie nobody believed in made Jim Carrey a star
Whenever you hear a director or actor talk about how no one ever knows if a film is going to be a hit or a huge flop, it can be hard not to roll your eyes. Surely someone on the set of Cats had an inkling that it was maybe – just maybe – going to be one of the worst movies of the decade. Surely someone could’ve tapped Jared Leto on the shoulder while filming House of Gucci to mention that he might consider dialling down that accent (for want of a better word) just a few notches.
There are some movies, however, whose makers can credibly claim to have been completely uncertain about the reception, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective definitely fits into that category. Starring a relatively untested, fresh-faced Jim Carrey, it follows, as its title suggests, a pet detective named Ace Ventura who is enlisted to find the real-life dolphin mascot of the Miami Dolphins football team.
At that point in his career, Carrey was hardly a household name, having spent the past few years as a recurring performer on the television sketch show In Living Color. He was barely a TV star, let alone a movie star, but his lack of experience was roughly equivalent to the rest of the Ace Ventura crew. Director Tom Shadyac had been a voice coach and joke writer and had never made a movie before, and writer Jack Bernstein had never written a script. The one person who did have previous filmmaking experience was the cinematographer Julio Macat, whose past ventures included the first two Home Alone movies.
Recalling the general mood during the production of Ace Ventura, Macat said, “We thought we were making the biggest piece of rubbish that ever existed. We all just kind of went at it like, this could be outrageously funny, or it could be the biggest piece of shit. We did a lot of stuff that was silly for the sake of being silly. That’s the magic of filmmaking — you never know how it will be received.”
Given the uncertainty of those involved, it’s hard not to admire the sheer intensity with which Carrey approaches his character. Subtle it is not, but the commitment is pretty impressive. With his swoop of hair, elastic face, and explosively kinetic energy, he blitzes his way through every scene, leaving dumbstruck reactions in his wake. Part of the success of his performance came down to the supporting cast, who, as Macat pointed out, chose to find comedy in contrast rather than in attempting to match Carrey’s intensity.
“[T]he fact that the co-stars played it more real grounded it in a strange way,” he said. “[S]o he was still liked by the girlfriend and the threat of the story was still a real threat.”
With a budget of only £12million, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective went on to gross £58m at the box office and kicked off the career of its leading man with a bang. It was perfect timing, too. Later that year, two other Carrey vehicles were released – The Mask and Dumb and Dumber. By the end of 1994, the former television sketch comedian was a bonafide movie star.
