How one movie made Jim Carrey question his existence: “I know now that he doesn’t really exist”
After performing in the sketch show In Living Colour, Jim Carrey went on to become one of the greatest comic actors of all time, starring in several acclaimed comedy movies in the 1990s, including Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber, which were, remarkably, all released in the year of 1994.
Carrey’s other comedy roles include Me, Myself and Irene, Bruce Almighty and Yes Man. However, Carrey has also given worthy performances in dramatic roles too, such as in The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Kidding. But perhaps of all Carrey’s roles, none were as influential from a personal basis as 1999’s Man on the Moon.
Man on the Moon is Miloš Forman’s biographical comedy-drama about the American entertainer and performance artist Andy Kaufman and details his life from childhood to performing in comedy clubs, beginning a career that would culminate in legendary appearances on Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman.
During an interview with The Talks, Carrey opened up on his role and explained how it made him realise that ‘Jim Carrey’ was essentially a character that he had created, even though that very character was himself. “I see someone who thought they were a person, who was trying to create characters,” he said.
It was playing Kaufman that had Carrey realise how easily he could “lose [himself] in a character.”
“I could live in a character,” he said. “It was a choice. And when I finished with that, I took a month to remember who I was. ‘What do I believe? What are my politics? What do I like and dislike?’”
Carrey continued: “It took me a while, and I was depressed going back into my concerns and my politics. But there was a shift that had already happened. And the shift was, ‘Wait a second. If I can put Jim Carrey aside for four months, who is Jim Carrey? Who the hell is that?’”
The big realisation for Carrey was simply that Jim Carrey “does not really exist”; instead, “he’s ideas”. It’s that lack of self that has provided the biggest change in Carrey’s life, probably since he first burst onto the acting and comedy scene. “Everything is touched by that,” he said. “Everything I am doing creatively right now seems to point to the awareness of a lack of self.”
Carrey is known to have suffered from depression throughout his life, and it’s likely that the big realisation off the back of Man on the Moon brought him to confront that very mental condition. He puts his spiritual “awakening” down to “getting to the place where you have everything everybody has ever desired and realising you are still unhappy. And that you can still be unhappy is a shock when you have accomplished everything you ever dreamt of and more.”
Check out the trailer for Man on the Moon below.
