Jim Carrey Felt ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ Came out at a Bad Time
Comedian Jim Carrey’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is seen by many as one of the most memorable movies in the actor’s career. But he wondered if there was a more appropriate time for the film to make its debut.
Jim Carrey felt ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ could’ve been more successful if it came out at better time
By most metrics, Eternal Sunshine was seen as a success. Every actor’s performance, from Jim Carrey to Kate Winslet to Kirsten Dunst, received considerable praise in the feature. Critics also fell in love with the movie itself. It currently holds a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 256 critic reviews. Its box-office, however, only enjoyed modest success. According to The Numbers, it made $72 million off a $20 million budget. Although it made its money back, its monetary rewards paled a bit in comparison to its critical praise.
Still, Carrey made the argument that the feature sufficiently reached its viewers the way it was intended to do.
“I mean the facility of the award season and all those things like that can help a movie make more money. This movie did what it was supposed to do in that time frame,” Carrey once said according to Black Film.
But the Dumb and Dumber star definitely thought the movie could’ve done even more if it was released in a better time slot.
“I think they were, I think it was a bad time to open the movie if you wanted to have that buzz,” he said. “It was early in the year and human beings are just so bombarded by things that by the time it comes out it’s like, ‘Oh, did that happen last year? I don’t remember.’ It’s just the way we are. It’s just a natural progression. But I think it did make an impact with people and I run into people all the time that say, ‘That movie is really special’ and it will last and it really touches people. So, how do you measure success, you know? I mean you gotta measure success by the impact that it has on each individual I think, you know?”
Kate Winslet once felt she ended up playing the Jim Carrey part in ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’
Eternal Sunshine was a change of pace for both of its leads Carrey and Winslet. Carrey was often seen portraying more manic, occasionally chaotic characters like his roles in The Mask and Ace Ventura. Meanwhile, Winslet often did period pieces in quieter, more introverted roles. But in their 2004 sci-fi romance, they’d see these roles swapped.
“I really had the Jim Carrey part, and that was pretty terrifying to be honest. At first I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be the funny one. Oh no. How on earth am I going to do that?’ So yeah, I was very nervous walking into it, but I like that fear,” Winslet once told About Film. “That stage fright is often one of the best things. I didn’t preplan too much of it either. With the more romanticized period pieces that I have been doing—the more classical parts—you really have to prepare for something like that.”
Why Jim Carrey allegedly hated doing ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’
Recently, film producer Anthony Bergman offered a little insight on what happened behind-the-scenes in Eternal Sunshine. Bergman alleged that the film’s director, Michel Gondry, had a very unique style of filmmaking. He didn’t yell action or cut, as directors typically do when shooting movies. And his method of shooting only fueled the chaotic setting the actors found themselves in.
“Everything was so chaotic in that way. People were thrown into the scene in a way that didn’t allow them to compose,” Bergman said on the Hollywood Gold podcast. “It’s a very different type of role that Jim had. He’s a real perfectionist. It was ‘how do we destabilize it so he can’t prepare, so he can’t do the Jim Carrey thing?’ Part of the camera set-up stuff was designed to do that.”
This led to The Truman Show actor initially not having the greatest time on set.
“Jim…he hated it,” Bergman continued. “We knew he was going to hate it. He’s the biggest star in the world, in control of every set, and here we were, pulling that part away. And who the f*** were we to do that? Which he would have a good point about that. He would, like, storm out and scream at me. He called me all sorts of things and I would just be there to absorb it. He’s like, ‘This is like the worst set I’ve ever been on, I don’t know what the f*** is going on!’ And we’re like, ‘No, no, no, it’s all good. This is why we’re getting great stuff.’”
