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Jim Carrey, described as one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood, is a Canadian American actor, comedian, impressionist, screenwriter, and film producer. Here are 50 interesting facts about the Golden Globe award winning actor -
- “The Mask” director Chuck Russell praised Carrey’s performance in the movie by stating that the use of CGI was minimized largely due to lead actor’s body movements that were flexible and cartoonist.
- He also improvised a scene where the “Mask” picks a condom out of a pocket and says “sorry, wrong pocket” when gangsters chase him in the movie “The Mask.”
- The voice and the manner in which Ventura speaks was Carrey’s own addition. He used this same voice for his stand up comedy routines.
- “Alrighty Then” phrase was the catch phrase of his standup character. He used this phrase in “Ace Ventura” movie and “In Living Color” too.
- Originally the Ace Ventura’s Pet Detective was meant to be a bumbling idiot character. Once Jim Carrey was cast as the detective, the character was rewritten.
- Once Carrey stayed in the famous room 217 of Stanley hotel (“The Shining” movie fame) during the shoot of “Dumb and Dumber.” After just 3 hours he came out running and left the hotel. He won’t tell anyone why and vows never to go back.
- Initially Carrey was offered $700,000 to appear in “Dumb and Dumber.” However his previous movie “Ace Ventura Pet Detective” opened at #1 in US Box office and his salary rose to $7 million, half of the movie’s budget.
- He married Lauren Holly, his dumb and dumber co-star on 23 September 1996, which did not last more than a year.
- He became the first actor to have all his films at #1 in box office in one year (1994): “The Mask”, “Ace Ventura Pet Detective”, and “Dumb and Dumber.”
- For his performance as Ace Ventura he won Block Buster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor, Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Male Newcomer and Kids Choice Award for Favorite Movie Actor.
- He won London Critics Circle Award for Newcomer of the year for both “Ace Ventura” and “The Mask.”
- He was nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globe for “The Mask.” For the same movie he was also nominated at MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance.
- He was born as James Eugene Carrey on 17 January, 1962 in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada.
- He was born to Kathleen Oram, a homemaker and Percy Carrey, a musician and accountant.
- He is the last of 4 children in the family. The three older siblings are John, Patricia and Rita.
- He went to Aldershot High School in Burlington, Ontario during his stay there for eight years.
- During an interview he stated that he would have been working in a steel mill in Hamilton, Ontario if not for his show business. As a kid he used to think “Those were where the great jobs were”, by looking at the steel mill.
- He married former actress Melissa Womer on 28 March, 1987. They have a daughter Jane, born on 6 September, 1987.
- He used to take Prozac, a medication for depression. He has stated recently that he has stopped all kinds of medications and stimulants including coffee.
- His father was a great support to him during his struggling times as a comedian. His father would drive him to Toronto to debut at comedy club Yuk Yuk’s, where he was a failure.
- He left his comedy acts and ambitions for some time to support his family struggling under financial problems. Post domestic stability he restored his standup acts which were becoming popular.
- Comedian Rodney Dangerfield spotted the upcoming star Carrey and signed him to open his tour performances. Dangerfield took him to Las Vegas but eventually Carrey moved to Hollywood in search of fame.
- In 1982 he appeared on the television standup show “An Evening at the Improv.” He also debuted on “The Tonight Show” in 1983.
- He also hosted Saturday Night Live in May 1996, January 2011 and October 2014. He first auditioned to be cast member of the show in 1980-1981 seasons but was rejected.
- Thomas Hayden church was edged out by Carrey for a spot in the comedy television series “In Living Color.” From 1990 to 1994 he became a regular cast member.
- During the shoot of movie “Batman Forever” he did not get along with Tommy Lee Jones. Jones had said to Carrey that he hated him and his fans.
- The Clash between Carrey and Jones during the shoot annoyed the director Joel Schumacher and the director vowed never to work with either of them. However he worked with Carrey in 2007 on “The Number 23”.
- He had some romance with Renee Zellweger and was engaged to her from 1999 to 2000.
- He reprised the role of Ace Ventura in the sequel “Ace Ventura When Nature Calls” in 1995. He was paid $15 million for the role.
- He has confessed to Jeff Daniels that he did not like the sequel of Ace Ventura that much. He disliked the concept of the detective afraid of Bats. He was actually surprised that the movie was not banned.
- In the movie “The Cable Guy” in 1996, Carrey who did not know how to play basketball had to dribble one and make a basket. Director Ben Stiller asked him to mime the action and CGI was used post production.
- The movie “The Cable Guy” earned $102 million in box office worldwide which was much less than what was predicted. It was owing to the Carrey fans who didn’t accept him deviating from his conventional physical comedy style.
- In the movie “Liar Liar”, the gag of Fletcher (Jim Carrey) chasing his son as “The Claw” was actually done to him and his siblings by his father.
- When Fletcher beats himself up in restroom in the movie “Liar Liar” no sound effects were used. It was the original sound of Carrey’s head hitting the walls, urinal and floor.
- He earned a second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in the movie “Liar Liar.”
- On the sets of “The Truman Show” in 1998 all the cast members were forbidden from uttering phrases from Carrey’s past “silly” movies.
- Jim Carrey took pay cut to act in “The Truman Show.” He was paid $12 million in place of $20 million he usually charges.
- He received his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance as Truman Burbank. “The Truman Show” was commercial success grossing $264 million and many even believed that Carrey would be nominated for Oscar.
- He dated actress and model Jenny McCarthy in 2005 and made their relationship public in 2006. However they split in 2010.
- In 1999 Carrey was cast as the lead portraying “Andy Kaufman” in the movie “Man on the Moon” ironically both Carrey and Kaufman were born on 17 January.
- Jerry Lawler during an interview stated that it was a handful working with Carrey in “Man on the Moon” since he insisted in staying in character Kaufman on and off set which annoyed every one.
- His ex-wife Mellisa Womer has a small role that of a comedy store waitress in the movie “Man on the Moon.”
- He has lent his voice to the animation character Horton, an elephant in the animation movie “Horton Hears a Who.”
- In the movie “Yes Man” the lead character Carl bumps a waitress in the bar and falls down. Carrey first did the scene incorrectly and broke 3 ribs on falling down.
- During the filming of “Yes Man” Carrey said yes to many things such as playing the guitar himself, learned basic Korean, rode a sports bike and bungee-jumped. However the most difficult and terrifying scene was when he said no first time and a dog was in front. The leash broke several times.
- He was cast in 2007 movie “The Number 23” where he plays the character who is obsessed with the number 23. Ironically his production company is named JC 23 Entertainment and his father played Saxophone just like the character in the movie.
- Carrey was paid $23 million for the movie “The Number 23.”
- He was inducted into Canada Walk of Fame in 2004.
- He was honored by Canada Post with a limited edition postage stamp with his portrait on it on 29 Aug 2014.
- Cathriona White, his girlfriend was found dead on 28 September 2015 due to a prescription drug overdose.
