Jim Carrey’s star was very much on the rise when he signed on to play chip-toothed slacker Lloyd Christmas in cult comedy hit Dumb and Dumber.
The Hollywood star had just finished shooting what was to become his breakthrough movie, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, but said he was overawed by the 100% commitment co-star Jeff Daniels brought to the role of Lloyd’s half-witted roommate Harry Dunne.
Daniels had previously been known for dramatic roles in films such as Terms of Endearment and Gettysburg, but Carrey was convinced he was the right fit for the madcap comedy after reading through the script with him: “That guy scared the shit out of me,” he told writers Peter and Bobby Farrelly. “I was on my heels the whole time. That’s got to be the guy.”
Daniels was determined to branch out into more comedic roles too, and accepted a very low fee for the film: “The studio didn’t want him,” Bobby told The Hollywood Reporter.
“They said: ‘Please, anyone but him. Get a comedic actor.’ So they offered him, if I recall, 50 grand, which was, you know, Jim’s getting seven mil, they offered him 50 figuring he’ll say: ‘No, I’m not taking that,’ but he took it.”
By 2014, Daniels was earning three times that figure for just one episode of HBO’s hit drama The Newsroom.
By contrast, Carrey’s agent was able to secure a much more impressive fee for his client. Carrey was originally offered $350,000 (£280,000) for the role, according to reports, but with Ace Ventura drawing huge audiences, that initial offer eventually settled at $7million (£5.64m).
“Ace Ventura was a surprise hit,” Peter Farrelly recalled, “and to have him attached to our low-budget movie catapulted us into a higher stratosphere.”
Carrey’s pay cheque was a significant chunk of the movie’s overall budget: “The whole budget was $16million (£12.9m) and Jim got seven, which was the most ever for any comedic actor.”
His commitment couldn’t be questioned, though. In an interview with the Guardian, the Farrelly brothers recalled how the star threw himself into the part: “Jim relished the fact that these characters were incorrigibly dumb and pushed to make them even dumber.
“We showed up at his house before shooting and he had that haircut. We were hysterical. He said it was the haircut he had when he was a kid. He’d chipped his tooth as a kid, too. So he had been to the dentist and had them chip the tooth cap.”
Daniels was determined to match his co-star’s all-in attitude. He told the Guardian how he thought to himself: “It’s either going to be such a bad career move I’ll never work again, or it just might be funny.”
He recalled how he reacted to Carrey’s bizarre new look for Lloyd Christmas: “One day Jim came into rehearsals having put a bowl on his head and cut his hair, because that’s how his character Lloyd would do it. I thought: ‘I gotta come up with something.’
“We were staying at a Holiday Inn and I started using the shampoo but with no conditioner. Then I’d towel my hair dry and not comb it. And that was it. I came in and said: “Maybe this is Harry’s look?” Everyone agreed. After a couple of months, you could almost break my hair off.”
The wild transformations, and colossal wages bill, turned out to be worthwhile though. In its opening weekend, Dumb and Dumber shot to No.1 at the US box office. It went on to gross more than $127million (£102m) in the United States, and more than a staggering $247million (£199m) worldwide. Carrey and Daniels returned to their characters for a sequel in 2014, and the movie also spawned a prequel and a TV series with different actors in the main roles.
