James Eugene Carrey :: Essays Papers

James Eugene Carrey The exceptional Canadian actor, Jim Carrey, has exploded onto the movie scene in the past five years. His "comedic unpredictability" has become his trademark in Hollywood (Hughes 28). The roles he played in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber have brought back the "dumb roots" back to comedy (Trakin 56). His combination of physical grace and facial contortions can make just about anyone laugh. Even as a child in Newmarket, a suburb of Toronto, Carrey put on his own comedy shows for family, friends, and schoolmates. Acting in a third-grade Christmas pageant at Blessed Trinity School, the young Carrey stopped the show with his goofy portrayal of Santa Claus. In the seventh grade he was allotted 15 minutes at the end of each school day to perform for his classmates (Hughes 39). When Jim was 14 and his father lost his job, he learned that "life offers no assurances, so you might as well do what you're really passionate about," as he explained to Richard Corliss of Time. These words represent Jim's life and how he eventually became who he is today. The whole family--Percy, Kathleen, sons Jim and John, and daughters Pat and Rita--went to work at Titan Wheels, a tire factory in Scarborough, Ontario. After putting in a full day at school, the children labored all night, as assembly line workers and janitors. "At 16 Carrey dropped out of school, his straight A's having plummeted to failing grades under the strain of working the evening shift" ("Jim Carrey" 75). The Carreys eventually quit their factory jobs and took to living in a Volkswagen camper. In an interview with Fred Schruers, Carrey said, "It sounds sad but we were so much happier than we'd been being those people we didn't like...we became living, happy, laughing people again, people that had food fights every Sunday" (Johnston 3). In the meantime, Jim Carrey had begun his standup comedy career, "A psychological double-edged sword that simultaneously provided an outlet for the pressure he felt to support his family" ("Jim Carrey" 75). In Tennessee Williams memory play, "The Glass Menagerie," a character named Jim O'Connor plays a gentleman caller. His high- school years are in great contrast to Jim Carrey's high-school days. "In high school, Jim was a hero." "He had tremendous Irish good