The Robert Downey Jr. movie that almost gave Jim Carrey his big break
As far as breakthrough years go, Jim Carrey enjoyed one for the ages when he exploded in popularity to evolve from a relatively unknown sketch comic to an A-list Hollywood superstar in less than 12 months.
Although he’d been acting and performing since the early 1980s and rose to prominence as a member of In Living Color for five seasons and 125 episodes, it wasn’t until 1994 that Carrey became a household name after taking top billing in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber.
All three were major box office hits and among the most quotable comedies of the 1990s, launching the rubber-faced comic’s profile to brand new heights. However, had things turned out differently, then not only would Carrey have secured his breakout role a couple of years ahead of schedule, he could have potentially outlined his untapped dramatic capabilities a decade before they gained notice.
He’s always been a fantastic actor in the truest sense of the word, but it was his slapstick stylings that defined Carrey until that perception started to shift towards the end of the 1990s through the likes of The Truman Show and The Man on the Moon. Robert Downey Jr may have landed an Academy Award nomination for the part, but Vulture revealed that Carrey was under consideration to headline Chaplin.
Richard Attenborough’s biopic tracing the story of the legendary star required a powerhouse performance, one that Downey Jr undeniably gave. However, as well as the film’s financial backers pushing for either Billy Crystal or Robin Williams to lead the line, Carrey was in the running, too.
Even when the future Iron Man was cast, Attenborough indicated that he may not have gotten the job if he had more money at his disposal. “The first time I met Dicky, he held up a picture of Tom Cruise to me and said, ‘Now isn’t that remarkable resemblance? Wouldn’t it be amazing if Tom Cruise played him?’” he said during an appearance on David Letterman’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
“I shit you not, he held a picture of Tom Cruise and said, ‘That’s why he should play Chaplin.’ I was like, ‘Probably, but he passed, so now what?’” Carrey has never publicly commented on his involvement or lack thereof, although he was bestowed with the ‘Charlie Chaplin Award for Excellence In Comedy’ in 2018, so he’s got a strong connection to the iconic performer either way.
The awards-friendly biographical drama was viewed as Downey Jr’s attention-grabbing arrival as a serious and eminently talented thespian, but in an alternate universe, that distinction would have fallen on Carrey’s shoulders instead, and before he’d even conquered the industry with his boundless energy and signature style of screwball antics.
