Jim Carrey's 8 Worst Misdeeds

After our article on Shia LaBeouf, we focus here on another eccentric actor: Jim Carrey. Star of The Mask, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or more recently Sonic, Jim Carrey is a chameleon actor, who is afraid of nothing. Sometimes criticized, often misunderstood, we look back here at the XX worst (or best) follies of this extraordinary actor.

The SNL sketch – Black Swan

In 2011, Darren Aronofsky directed with Black Swan one of his best films. Led by Natalie Portman, it has become an essential reference of modern “elevated horror”. So much so that Jim Carrey himself decided to parody Black Swan during a sketch for SNL. An inhabited and disturbing performance in which Jim Carrey is totally inhabited. Jim Carrey plays a character called “Lily“, which is in fact an exaggerated and comical version of Mila Kunis' character. A sketch that has become iconic in which Jim Carrey shows his full range of acting skills, but also his underlying madness.

The Emma Stone Affair

In 2011, Jim Carrey made a very strange and somewhat tasteless statement. Indeed, alone at home, behind his camera, the actor, then aged 49, declares his love for the young actress Emma Stone, 22 at the time. Jim Carrey then offers a (too) long two-minute monologue in which he openly declares his love for Emma Stone, then very bankable at the time:

You are not only beautiful, but also smart and caring. If I were much younger, I would marry you and we would have children. Every day of the rest of your life you would thank God that I am the right age for you. And sex… But I am not. I am 49, I have wrinkles on my face, my beard is starting to turn gray and it takes me a little longer than before to pee.

A few weeks later, Jim Carrey would declare on Twitter that this video was simply a comedy:

Yes, my message to Emma Stone was a joke, and the funniest thing is that everything I say in this video is true, “ then: “People often ask me if I'm joking or serious. The answer is “ YES”.

So, a simple joke, a bit borderline, or a huge, unacknowledged slip-up? Hard to say…

His meeting with Michel Hazanavicius

In 2022, during an interview with France Inter, the actor Eric Judortold an almost disturbing anecdote about Jim Carrey. He explained how the meeting between the American actor and the French director Michel Hazanavicius (0SS 117 – The Artist) went:

Michel Hazanavicus receives a script that Jim Carrey would absolutely like to do. The character in the film has an imaginary friend who would be a giant bear, a giant stuffed animal. I don't remember if it's a rabbit or a bear, in short, a 2.50 meter stuffed animal, to whom he speaks regularly. And so, Michel goes to Los Angeles and has lunch with Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey arrives, he says “Ok, I'm going to have a salad and you, what do you want?” And he starts to talk to his 2.50 meter imaginary rabbit-bear. Michel laughs, obviously, and then Carrey continues. “Did you want something to drink, maybe? A soda? Or some freshly squeezed orange juice?” He continues to to address his imaginary friend like that! Michel laughs less and less, and then it lasts… all lunch! And it's very long when you have a guy who talks to an imaginary character for an hour and a half. Obviously, it was very embarrassing. So I don't know if Michel allowed me to reveal this anecdote but I don't care, I told it.

A slightly crazy anecdote that proves once again the totally tortured mind of Jim Carrey. The actor gets so involved in his roles that he even goes so far as to imagine fictional characters…

His relationship with Tommy Lee Jones

Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey worked together on the set of Batman Forever (1995). And apparently, the relationship between the two men was not at its best. Tommy Lee Jones has often criticized Jim Carrey's methods, which he finds too extreme, too eccentric, even dangerous. Shortly after the filming of Batman Forever, Jim Carrey meets Tommy Lee Jones at a restaurant table. He decides to go and greet him. And that's when Jim Carrey realized Tommy Lee Jones' hatred for him:

He went completely pale and stood up shaking, as if he was half fantasizing about killing me. He came over for a hug and said, 'I hate you. I really don't like you.' I don't condone your buffoonery.

His girlfriend committed suicide

In 2015, Jim Carrey found himself at the center of a compromising affair. Indeed, Cathriona White, a thirty-year-old Irish makeup artist, committed suicide. The latter had maintained a stormy and toxic relationship of several years with Jim Carrey. Cathriona White commits suicide by overdosing on medication. These said medications were allegedly obtained through an alias of Jim Carrey. At the time of her suicide, she leaves a letter behind for Jim Carrey.Cathriona White's relatives quickly accused the actor of manipulating her, of providing her with the drugs responsible for her death, and of contaminating her with STDs. Jim Carrey firmly denied all of these accusations. After years of legal battles, the case was dismissed in 2018. But some still believe that the actor was not completely unconnected with Cathriona White's death. Here is an excerpt from Cathriona White's letter:

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It's been three days since you've been here. I could survive my broken heart and mend the pieces. But I just don't have the will to do it this time. I'm sorry I wasn't a better support. I tried to give you my best. Please forgive me. I'm just not cut out for this world.

To which Jim Carrey responded in the columns of US Weekly:

I am shocked and deeply saddened by the passing of my sweet Cathriona. A lovely, delicate Irish flower, too sensitive for this world, for whom loving and being loved was the only thing that mattered.

Heartbreaking…

He wrote letters to Tupac when he was in prison

In 1995, Tupac Shakur was incarcerated à Dannemora Prison. A particularly difficult period for the rapper, who could nevertheless count on the support of… Jim Carrey. Tupac was an unconditional fan of Jim Carrey. The two men had just begun to become friends when Tupac was incarcerated for a rape case. Over time, Jim Carrey wrote many humorous letters in support of the rapper. Unfortunately, Jim Carrey never wanted to reveal the content of these letters, which he maliciously keeps secret.

His lunar interviews

Jim Carrey is used to totally lunar television appearances. We can cite his totally crazy speech at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards or his existential speech at the 2016 Golden Globes:

I am a two-time Golden Globe winner… and when I go to bed at night, I don't dream of just being an actor who makes movies. No, I dream of being a three-time Golden Globe winner. Because then I can finally feel complete, and I can know that what I'm chasing has been achieved. Until then, I'll be anxious, like we all are.

But perhaps the best example of his madness is this lunar interview in 2016 on the Fashion Week carpet. While attending At the Harper's Bazaar Icons party on the sidelines of New York Fashion Week, the actor was questioned by a journalist from the American channel E! News. The journalist, in complete disarray, did not expect the actor's totally jaded and out of touch answers:

I wanted to find the most meaningless thing I could go to and here I am. You know it's meaningless? We're celebrating icons tonight, do you believe in icons? I don't believe in personalities, I don't believe you exist, but you leave a wonderful scent behind you. I don't believe in icons. I believe that peace lies beyond personalities, beyond the invention of the heavens, beyond the red S on your chest that makes the balls bounce. I think it's deeper than that, I think we're dancing energy fields, and I don't care. I'm not dressed, I don't exist. There are just things that happen and there are tetrahedral clusters that move together.

Man on the Moon

But Jim Carrey's biggest break was probably during the filming of Man on the Moon by Milos Forman. An extraordinary biopic-fiction that tells the story of Andy Kaufman, a famous American comedian who died in 1984. A mischievous and eccentric character, Andy Kaufman was ready to do anything to get people talking about him. He had notably invented a character by the name of Tony Clifton. When he became Tony Clifton, Andy Kaufman allowed himself anything and everything and became an unbearable, rude and provocative individual. For years, Andy Kaufman played both of these personalities.

Andy Kaufman has gone so far in his performances that some believe he is still alive and staged his own death. And for Man on the Moon, Jim Carrey broke all the boundaries of reality to be as close as possible to the character. Already, during the entire filming, which lasted several months, during and outside of takes, Jim Carrey wanted everyone to call him Andy. He even went further and asked the production for two trailers: one in the name of Andy Kaufman, the other in the name of Tony Clifton.

According to Jim Carrey, he got in touch with Andy Kaufman. When he got the part, Carrey went to watch the sea. Suddenly, dolphins came out of the water. He was convinced it was a sign from Andy Kaufman:

It was a telepathic response. It was completely absurd, but it worked!

Jim Carrey exhausted the entire crew of the film Man on the Moon, starting with director Milos Forman. When the film came out, he confided to our colleagues at Première that he was “exhausted” and that he had “never met Jim Carrey on the set”.His obsession with Andy was contagious since Milos Forman decided to name his children Jim and Andy.

But Jim Carrey's obsession sometimes went too far. The actor was so into the role of Andy Kaufman and Tony Clifton that he became detestable. A makeup artist burst into tears, some threatened to file a complaint for moral harassment, etc. Then things got out of hand during a fight scene between Jim and wrestler Jerry Lawler. By provoking him so much, the latter actually physically attacked Jim Carrey and sent him to the hospital. The incident was then mentioned on the news, to Carrey's great delight.

In short, there were plenty of anecdotes like this during the filming of Man on the Moon. The role of a lifetime and an almost neurotic involvement, told in the excellent documentary Jim & Andy, available on Netflix.