If you make it as an actor, the job can be tons of fun and very rewarding. However, it may not always offer the most satisfying work. Once the industry has decided that you are best suited to a certain kind of character or performance, you may end up playing that role for the rest of your career. Jim Carrey is one actor who definitely could have been stuck delivering the same hammy and vibrant comedy that he was known for. And to be fair, there was nobody better at it.
But Carrey decided very quickly that he was not going to be trapped by typecasting. And so, he fought hard to establish himself as more than just a respectable clown with various dramatic parts, finding success time and time again. Still, hardly every attempt he made at "serious" acting was a slam dunk. When one considers just about the entirety of Jim Carrey's less comedic resume, some performances rise far above others.
9) Walter Sparrow / Detective Fingerling in 'The Number 23' (2007)
Walter Sparrow is a dogcatcher and family man who develops an obsession with the 23 enigma after reading about a fictional detective in a book with the same fixation. The events of the novel seem to parallel Walter's own life, with Jim Carrey portraying both Walter and the detective, Fingerling, as the narrative unfolds.
This so-called thriller is hilariously preposterous and needlessly complicated, but Carrey plays it completely straight and deserves either an Oscar just for being able to do so or our sympathy for misguided effort.
8) Tadek in 'Dark Crimes' (2016)
In quite possibly the darkest and most adult role of his entire career, Jim Carrey dives headlong into the mind of Tadek, a Polish detective who discovers a connection between a homicide case and a best-selling novel, which leads him down a veritable rabbit's hole of depravity.
Critics absolutely shredded this true-crime movie when it came out, though a few apologists do exist. As far as Carrey's performance is concerned, people have been divided over it, and not just because of his questionable accent. Carrey is at his grittiest and most reserved as Tadek, to the point where seemingly no semblance of his distinct charm is present. Whether that was a mistake or not, this was definitely his riskiest project and his commitment to the part is plain to see.
7) Peter Appleton in 'The Majestic' (2001)
This largely forgotten Jim Carrey dramatic vehicle stars the comedian as a screenwriter caught up in the McCarthyism of the '50s after being accused of communist affiliation. Later suffering amnesia from a traffic accident, he is taken in by the residents of a small town, who believe him to be a former local that went missing while fighting in World War II.
The Majestic is a saccharine cloud of sentimental fluff and cotton candy clichés, yet Carrey powers through the material with total conviction and unyielding likability. Even if the movie is not well-remembered, it may be worth revisiting, if only to ensure that Carrey's work does not remain unnoticed.
6) Ebenezer Scrooge And The Christmas Ghosts in 'A Christmas Carol' (2009)
Once upon a time, there was a crotchety geezer who hated Christmas. And then, a bunch of ghosts showed up to scare him straight. The end. OK, there is more to it than that, but everyone already knows the story. And the film industry never seems to get tired of telling it. The Robert Zemeckis version starring Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge and, in a clever twist, the three Christmas spirits who visit him, used animation, motion capture, and a darker tone to put a fresh spin on the classic tale.
You would think that Carrey's elastic physicality makes him perfect for mo-cap, which is certainly true, but more than that, it is the amount of personality and heart he brings to the movie that's significant. Carrey is pulling quadruple duty with Scrooge and the Ghosts, meaning he goes through a range of movements, voices, accents, moods, and ages, in some instances, within the same character, and he nails them.
5) Steven Jay Russell in 'I Love You Phillip Morris' (2009)
Based on the life of a real con artist, this movie has Jim Carrey inhabiting the skin of a former police officer, businessman, husband, and father who comes out of the closet and becomes a criminal to support his new exuberant lifestyle. After his actions land him in prison, he falls in love with a fellow inmate and desires to be with him no matter what.
While hardly a full-on drama, I Love You Phillip Morris still provided Carrey with one of his meatiest roles in years. As Steven Jay Russell, Carrey comes off just as much tender as he is humorous, despite the character's unscrupulous behavior.
4) The Hermit in 'The Bad Batch' (2016)
In a dystopian America, a young woman is banished to a wasteland occupied by the rejects and undesirables of society, which include cannibals and a nameless hermit played by a barely recognizable Jim Carrey.
Unlike the majority of his films, Carrey's role in this flick is very much a supporting one, but he leaves an arresting impression. Silent, and with his face buried under a mountain of grime and a beard, Carrey manages to convey so much life with just his expressions and mannerisms, tapping into something both primal and familiar.
3) Truman Burbank in 'The Truman Show' (1998)
Everyman Truman Burbank has a pretty decent life: A steady job, a wife, and a place in a town where everyone knows his name. Little does he know that it is all a lie. His entire existence has been staged and manipulated as part of an elaborate television program being broadcast worldwide.
Jim Carrey is persistently charming as Truman, which makes him all the more sympathetic when his world comes crashing down upon him slowly realizing the illusion of it all. Carrey's mischievous comic energy is still evident within Truman and organically emerges further as he questions and challenges everything around him. But it is the poignant humanity of the character which Carrey wholly embodies that makes Truman unforgettable. The only thing sadder than his story is how the Oscars failed to acknowledge Carrey's performance.
2) Joel Barish in 'Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind' (2004)
A depressed man discovers that his ex-girlfriend underwent a procedure to have him and their relationship erased from her memories. Naturally upset by this, he decides to do the same, but while reliving their history in his mind, he has a change of heart and desperately fights to hold on to as much of her as he can.
At the time of this movie's release, Joel Barish was the most un-Jim Carrey role that the actor and comedian had ever taken due to the character's deeply introverted personality. Adding to the contrast was the fact that several elements of the movie, like his romantic interest (Kate Winslet) and the style, were quite quirky, and yet Carrey, the most animated performer you could imagine, was required to be the most restrained. But somehow, Carrey made Joel extremely compelling and relatable, portraying him with maturity, thoughtfulness, and uncharacteristic subtlety.
1) Andy Kaufman in 'Man on the Moon' (1999)
The late comedian, or rather, "anti-comedian," Andy Kaufman, is one of those figures whose unusual and turbulent life was just begging to be made into a biopic. And Jim Carrey seemed like the ideal choice to play him, as both men shared a spiritual kinship through their respective propensity for zaniness, though Kaufman was definitely the more madcap performer.
Regardless of Man on the Moon's flaws and how the Jim & Andy documentary made you feel about Carrey's work on the film, his performance captures the essence of Kaufman and his eccentricities in haunting detail and faithfulness. But in addition to honoring the man as an artist, Carrey digs into the tragedy behind the comedy to reveal Andy's all-too-human vulnerability. The Academy goofed big time by not nominating Carrey for resurrecting an icon.