The role Jim Carrey would only reprise if Christopher Nolan directed: “Then I might listen”
Throughout his career, rubber-faced comedic genius Jim Carrey has proven that he’s not exactly averse to making sequels. After all, the star has returned to several of his iconic characters over the years, with differing levels of success. However, to his credit, he also chose not to return to the well a few times when he didn’t feel excited by the material. Fascinatingly, he once revealed that he would only be convinced to return as one of his most beloved characters if an auteur like Christopher Nolan gave it a complete overhaul – but can you guess which character?
When Carrey shot to superstardom in 1994 with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber, fans immediately fell in love with all three films. He played the bizarrely coiffed animal sleuth again only a year later in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and returned as Lloyd Christmas in 2014’s Dumb and Dumber To, but he chose not to reprise the role of Stanley Ipkiss in another Mask film. Similarly, when Bruce Almighty was a gargantuan hit in 2003, Carrey chose to leave sequel duties to co-star Steve Carell.
Then, in 2020, Carrey found another character he loved so much that he has already reprised the role twice: Dr Ivo Robotnik in the kid-friendly Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Amusingly, Carrey seems to be so taken with playing the wacky, egg-obsessed villain that he has devoted his entire career to him. His last three credits are the Sonic movies, and he’s hinted in several interviews that he is effectively retired as an actor, aside from reprising the spandex-clad role of Robotnik. He once admitted to AP Entertainment, “I came back to this universe because I get to play a genius, which is a bit of a stretch. And, you know, I bought a lot of stuff, and I need the money, frankly.”
So, at this point, Carrey’s acting career is effectively in stasis unless the siren song of Robotnik catches his ear again. However, in 2022, he did reveal that he would potentially be open to reprising another of his iconic roles – but money wouldn’t be the thing that would get him off the sofa. Instead, he would want a new creative approach to the character from everyone’s favourite purveyor of cerebral-yet-explosive blockbusters.
Carrey told E! News’ Daily Pop that it had been so many years since he last inhabited the headspace of Ace Ventura that there would be no point in returning “unless some genius person, director, auteur comes to you with a completely new take on what’s going on.” He felt so much time had passed that, even if he tried to go back, he’d find himself doing an impression of what he did in the 1990s instead of being inspired to try something new. However, he claimed the involvement of someone like Nolan might spark something within him, saying, “If Chris Nolan came to me and said, ‘I want to make Ace Ventura real, and I want to do…something more interesting,’ then I might listen.”
In truth, few director/character combinations sound more absurd than Nolan and Ace Ventura. Pondering the idea of Nolan trying to apply his signature style of heightened reality to a cartoonish guy who solves pet-related crimes, catches bullets in his teeth, and utters catchphrases like “Alrighty, then!” is genuinely mind-boggling. At best, it sounds like something Nolan wouldn’t be interested in, and at worst, it sounds like a borderline insane misreading of what made Ace so hilariously entertaining. After all, why would you want to make an Ace Ventura movie that isn’t funny? As they say, though, stranger things have happened.
