The movie that set Jim Carrey up to fail: “I was a marked man at that point”
While being known for his particular brand of comedy and surprising blend of heart-wrenching dramatic roles, Jim Carrey has also gained attention for the size of his pay cheques, with the actor once earning around $20million for each role at the height of his career.
From the bittersweet heartbreak of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to the dystopian dream world of The Truman Show, Carrey has forged an equally impressive (albeit brief) career in more serious films, all before dipping out and returning to the world of slapstick humour and stories about pet detectives and the franchise films about hedgehogs.
However, despite being loved by commercial audiences and seen as the modern king of comedy, he has also been met with backlash over the years for starring in questionable films that cost a lot of money, with the actor believing he was set up for failure with one specific role.
While Ben Stiller has recently risen to new heights after creating the hit Apple TV show Severance, the director previously had a varied and slightly random career in this role, starring in and directing films like The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Zoolander and the 1996 film Cable Guy.
Starring Carrey and Matthew Broderick, Cable Guy follows a guy named Steven who finds himself in a strange feud with the cable guy who visits his apartment. Steven is stalked by someone that no one can believe would do anything wrong. Both Stiller and Carrey are renowned for their work as comedians, blending their signature style in bizarre and excessive ’90s comedy.
However, while the film shows the early inklings of Stiller’s absurdist style and preoccupation with satirical comedy, it was initially not received well by critics, despite the fact that audiences have turned to their analysis of his performance in recent years. While Carrey performs in his classic gimmicky way, he is subject to intense criticism due to the amount of money he is paid for the role, for being tonally messy and misusing Carrey’s talents, with the film having a darker tone compared to his other work.
This film came two years before the release of The Truman Show, which was the first dramatic role that Carrey reprised, something that people were perhaps uncomfortable with when seeing the first inklings of this in Cable Guy.
When discussing this, Carrey explained how he became targeted for his performance in the film despite the fact that the project was generally met well. “I was a marked man at that point. ’d had a lot of success and then the $20 million tag went on that and it was just…I was set up for that one. It was my turn. But I was ready for that: ‘It’s my turn, cool, whatever.’ I’ve never had the sense that I’m owed anything.”
While audiences were unfamiliar with Carrey’s dramatic talent and were keen to criticise anything he did, perhaps the polarising effect he had on viewers is what led the director of The Truman Show to capitalise on this quality by casting him in an obviously dramatic film, keen to disarm audiences and lean into this side of his talent.
