THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 28, 1994 TAG: 9407270041
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 155 lines
AS HE PROCLAIMS in his new movie, Jim Carrey is indeed s-s-s-ssssmoking!
After his first starring movie, ``Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,'' turned out to be the surprise hit of the year, Carrey goes wild in ``The Mask.'' The Silly Putty face he sports in that movie is not the only thing that's green - his pockets should be lined with bills of a similar hue.
A year ago, he was known only as a player on TV's ``In Living Color.'' Now, he's pulling in $7 million a movie and has just been signed for the role of The Riddler in the next ``Batman'' flick, as well as four other upcoming movies.
``The Mask,'' opening this week, is expected to firmly cement his position as the new wild-and-wacky guy of the movies. Carrey plays a mild-mannered employee at the Edge City Bank who is everyone's doormat until he becomes an outrageous superhero by donning a power-giving ancient mask. It's zero to hero in an instant - almost the way he did it in real life.
The new flick features Lucky Jim flashing his teeth, wisecracking, and dancing the rhumba to the tune of his new single record, ``Cuban Pete,'' a flashy number made famous by Desi Arnaz in the 1940s.
He's uninhibited. He's loud. He's outrageous. Rumor has it that the real Jim Carrey, age 32, is just as wacky as his characters. But there was little evidence of that as he walked into a suite in the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.
``I don't feel any different,'' he said when asked about his new fame. ``I'm just richer, I guess. But so what? Do we need another millionaire?''
After a moment of thought, he added: ``There's a lot of fear. The work hasn't been done yet. A lot of things are set to happen, but they haven't happened yet.''
When his agent called to tell him that he was being paid $7 million for his next movie, ``Dumb and Dumber,'' Carrey said, ``I thought it was some kind of cruel joke. It's nice, but I never worried about money, even when my family was totally broke, back in Canada. The $7 million will translate to a couple of million. I'll just be paying for some roads to get paved or something.''
But, he added a touch sheepishly, ``I bet that girl who wouldn't dance with me back in grade school is sorry now.'
Carrey, in spite of the seeming suddenness of his movie popularity explosion, is no overnight success. He's been knocking around Hollywood for 15 years, trying to get this break.
Born in Newmarket, Ontario, he was something of a loner as a kid. ``My mother was worried about me because I spent so much time in my room staring at myself in the mirror - making faces,'' he recalled. ``She said that if I stared in the mirror too long, I'd see the devil. That intrigued me even more.''
At age 5, he tried to entertain his family by falling down the steps. He perfected doing it in slow motion.
His favorite TV comic was Jackie Gleason. ``Jackie was funniest to me because he was dysfunctional,'' Carrey said. ``I've always liked to make fun of anyone who thinks he's in control. That's my big thing.''
``But,'' he added, ``I'm not a big student of comedy. I haven't studied Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. I think Steve Martin is amazing. I was a huge fan of Andy Kaufman. I am a big Dick Van Dyke fan. But none of them really gave me any great advice. No one really knows what the hell they're doing. How can one guy tell another how to be funny? I just hope my stuff comes across as being honest - not copying anyone else.''
At 15, he talked his accountant father into driving him twice a week into Toronto, where he tried a stand-up comedy routine at the Yuk Yuk Club. ``I used to lay in bed at night and stare at the ceiling - thinking about what it is about me that is going to be different,'' he said.
He quit school in the ninth grade after his father lost his job and the family lost its home. The family was sleeping in a van. At 17, he began to get regular work at comedy clubs across Canada. At 19, he packed his belongings and $1,000 in savings and headed for Los Angeles.
``I was so naive,'' he said, ``that when hookers approached me on Sunset Boulevard, I thought it was Sadie Hawkins Day.''
He promptly got a job at Mitzi Shore's Comedy Store, where Rodney Dangerfield saw him and put him on tour. His first Showtime special, ``Jim Carrey's Unnatural Act,'' aired in 1991 to rave reviews.
Hollywood, though, tried to turn him into a character actor. He had parts in the TV movie ``Doing Time on Maple Drive'' as well as in the movies ``Peggy Sue Got Married,'' ``Earth Girls Are Easy'' and ``The Dead Pool.''
``I auditioned to become a regular on `Saturday Night Live,' '' he remembered, ``but it was under strange conditions. When I got out of the car in the parking lot at NBC in Burbank, all decked out in my blue blazer, I saw this guy on top of the building threatening to jump. He was standing right by the ``N'' in NBC, and they were urging him not to jump. I went in to do the audition, but I kept wondering `Did he jump? Is he dead by now?' I wasn't very funny and I didn't get the job. When I went out, I didn't see him on the roof or the sidewalk. I asked but no one knew if he jumped.''
``In Living Color'' proved to be his breakthrough. His characters included the controversial Fire Marshall Bill, who was so befuddled that he ended up setting fires, and the steroid-crazed female body builder Vera de Milo.
``The best thing about `In Living Color' was that it taught me to think quick on my feet,'' he said. ``You had to come up quick with something good - on camera. After that, making the movie `Ace Ventura' didn't have pressure at all. Making a movie is so slow. The challenge is to keep up the energy.''
Carrey was paid $350,000 for ``Ace Ventura,'' which grossed $74 million. He got a $100,000 raise for ``The Mask.'' His agent asked for $1 million for ``Dumb and Dumber,'' his next picture, a road picture in which he and Jeff Daniels compete for the affections of Lauren Holly. But the studio quibbled about it for weeks. By then, ``Ace Ventura'' opened, Carrey was considered a major new star and the studio ended up paying him $7 million.
Meanwhile, numerous other deals have been made:
He will earn $7 million for a ``Mask'' sequel. (New Line Cinema is so sure it will be a hit that they have already planned the sequel).
He will be paid $5 million for a sequel to ``Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.''
Island World is paying him $7 million to make ``The Best Man,'' a comedy about a groomsman who ruins his best buddy's wedding.
The piece de resistance is the role of The Riddler in ``Batman Forever'' opposite Val Kilmer as the new Batman and Chris O'Donnell as Robin. The whole world thought Robin Williams would play the Riddler. So what happened? ``I met with the director, Joel Schumacher, and he offered me the job. It was that simple. I took it just to prove that I am not really insane.''
Cameron Diaz, the blond beauty who plays the nightclub singer in the Coco Gongo Nightclub in ``The Mask'' said, ``Jim is just as extreme as he is funny, but he's well-balanced. He doesn't have pressure or stress. He can be very serious.''
The only problem she had with him was his green makeup. ``When I kissed him, I got green on my face,'' she said. ``Worse, I got lipstick on his green face.''
Carrey had to go through four hours of makeup daily for ``The Mask.''
``They had to pay the crew overtime while they waited for me to get into makeup,'' he said. ``I liked Stanley (the tamer side of the alter ego) a lot, and I wanted him to be just as entertaining as the mask guy, but I'm afraid everyone will want me to stay green all the time.''
Richard Jeni, who plays his ``Mask'' sidekick, said: ``Jim makes all the other actors feel normal. I thought I had emotional problems until I met him.''
Charles Russell, who directed ``The Mask,'' said there are two reasons Jim Carrey has become a new star: ``(1) There's the sense of danger. He takes stuff to a dangerous edge and (2) he's lovable. He's crazy, but he could still be Everyman. He imagines so hard when he imagines.''
Jim Carrey claims he has not gone ``hog wild'' with his new salaries, although he has bought a 1965 Thunderbird and a $2.5 million home in Brentwood.
He was recently divorced from his wife of seven years, but he has visitation rights with his 6-year-old daughter, Jane, three days a week. ``She complains that the kids at school kid her about her daddy being Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,'' he said. ``She's told me that I have to stop being silly. Her teacher told me that she had never had a child who would climb on top of the desk and burst into song in the middle of class. I don't know where she gets it from.''
Now, Carrey's worried that success might end up changing him. ``They're always trying to smooth the rough edges,'' he said. ``Don't they know that it's the rough edges that make us all special?'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by NEW LINE CINEMA
James Carrey goes wild in "The Mask"
Photo by NEW LINE CINEMA
The Mask (Jim Carrey) is overcome with love for a beautiful lounge
singer in the new film ``The Mask.''
by CNB