Jim Carrey Hated Dieting for This 1 Role — He Recalls Eating ‘Antimatter To Stay in That Kind of Shape’
Jim Carrey is back in the spotlight weekly on Saturday Night Live. The star portrays President-elect Joe Biden, and fans have mixed feelings over whether he is the right actor for the job. No matter the role, Jim Carrey does not hesitate to get into complete character, even if he has to eat “antimatter” to stay in shape.
Jim Carrey calls President Donald Trump a ‘loser,’ and fans love it
Although Carrey did not have to diet to become President-elect Joe Biden on Saturday Night Live, he did have to get into character. When the 58-year-old actor first stepped into the role on Oct. 3, 2020, many news outlets criticized the star for being too energetic.
“Smart political comedy always has an element of truth,” Chris Lu, senior Obama White House aide, told the Washington Post. “Like any politician, Biden certainly has particular traits that can be caricatured, but he’s absolutely not the maniacal figure that Carrey is portraying.”
However, after all of the criticism, fans rejoiced when Carrey pulled out his old Ace Ventura “Loooooooser” bit from 1994.
“I literally screamed when Ace showed up,” one fan wrote on the Saturday Night Live YouTube video. “I’ve missed him so much!”
Out of the almost 22,000 comments, the vast majority praise Carrey and Harris for the phenomenal job portraying the President-elect and Vice President-elect. Viewers applauded the skit and Carrey for “Uniting us through laughter.”
Carrey admitted to eating ‘antimatter’ for his role in ‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone’
In 2013, Carrey had considerably more work to do to get ready for his role as Steve Gray than he did to spoof President-elect Biden. In The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, the actor had to diet more than he would like to portray dangerous street magician Gray.
“It’s not a happy place to be,” Carrey told People about being so thin for the film. “I’m back now. I’ve got Mr. Cuddly back, and we’re happy.”
The actor rubbed his stomach, referring to it as “Mr. Cuddly,” when talking to the outlet.
“It’s not a natural place to live in that kind of shape,” he added. “It looks great. It’s fantastic and gets a lot of attention, but you have to eat, like, antimatter to stay in that kind of shape.”
Carrey also admitted that he would instead leave his shirtless scenes up to the professionals, like Matthew McConaughey.
The strict diet did not pay off for the actor
For as much as Carrey hated dieting for the film, he probably would have hoped for a more massive payoff. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone was listed as one of “Hollywood’s biggest box office bombs of 2013” by Variety. It grossed only $27.4 million but cost $30 million to produce, so it was far from a success.
The main criticism of the film was the plot, which many reviewers noted was predictable and dated. Luckily, Carrey’s performance was mostly praised for his humor, but he likely expected better reviews after all that dieting.
