The one movie Jim Carrey always wanted to make: “An opportunity to do a lot of wacked out characters”
Jim Carrey is the man you call when you want the absolute maximum performance. Known for the flexibility of his facial features and manic energy, Carrey dominates every film he’s in, no matter which co-stars he’s working with. In most cases, it’s best to just let Jim Carrey be Jim Carrey, as evidenced by films like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
However, in the rare instances where he’s played dramatic roles, Carrey has shown that he can tone it down. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Truman Show were met with glowing praise, and the actor’s carefully calibrated performances deserved all the glowing reviews they got.
Carrey has appeared in several recurring roles throughout his career, mostly notably as Lloyd in the Dumb and Dumber films and as the titular pet detective in the Ace Ventura series. However, when asked at a 2014 press conference which character he’d like to revisit, the actor said that he wasn’t a big fan of retracing old territory, saying, “I don’t concentrate on sequels.”
That said, he did acknowledge that he isn’t as resistant to the idea as he once was and that there was one character he’d like to return to. “I would’ve loved to have done a Lemony Snicket sequel because it was just an opportunity to do a lot of wacked out characters,” he said.
Carrey played the villain, Count Olaf, in the 2004 adaptation of the Lemony Snicket novel A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Count is an actor by trade and adopts three orphans for nefarious reasons. He and the orphans’ parents were involved in a secret organisation, and he desperately wants to get his hands on their fortune and exact petty revenge for a longstanding rift. Carrey got to play multiple roles in one, thanks to the Count’s theatrical leanings, and he clearly relished the opportunity. He is, as usual, the dominant force in the film, overshadowing the star-studded cast that included Jude Law, Catherine O’Hara, and Meryl Streep.
It’s unclear whether there was ever a sequel in the works for the film, but in 2017, Netflix released its own version of the Snicket books as a series starring Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf. It was well received by critics, and for fans of the novels, Harris’ portrayal as the villainous actor was more in keeping with the character that Snicket (whose real name is Daniel Handler) had created. It’s impossible not to see Jim Carrey when you see the 2004 film, but Harris blended into each new disguise while maintaining a distinct character of Olaf that was separate from his own celebrity persona.
The series was also a success in its faithfulness to the tone of Handler’s books. Where the 2004 film went for broad children’s humour, the series leaned into Handler’s macabre, offbeat sense of humour and found a passionate niche audience of all ages. Lest anyone lament on Carrey’s behalf, he found the perfect franchise when he took on the role of Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic the Hedgehog movies. Sporting even more outlandish facial hair, he’s right at home in the role.
