Jim Carrey Insisted This Band Appear in 1 of His Biggest Movies
Even earlier in his career, Jim Carrey has had a clear idea about what he wanted to achieve in his movies. The actor was a breakout star on TV’s In Living Color before becoming a movie star. Now Carrey’s most recent film, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, could be his final movie role. The actor shocked fans with a recent admission that he is considering retirement. That same take-charge nature once led Carrey to get one of his favorite bands to appear in his movie.
Jim Carrey had an epic year at the box office in 1994
Carrey was still on In Living Color when movie stardom came calling. The actor had appeared in several movies over the years, including his first lead role in 1985’s Once Bitten. But 1994 proved to be the year that would come to define his career. In the span of 12 months, Carrey starred in three blockbuster hits, all of which remain perennial fan favorites.
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber each, in fact, demonstrated just how much range the actor had. And as the years went by, Carrey would continue to unravel more layers to his capability as both a comedian and an actor. But those three hits are undoubtedly the foundation for everything he’s done on the big screen since.
How did Cannibal Corpse end up appearing in ‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective’?
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was more than Carrey’s first major hit movie. It also gave the actor an opportunity to put a spotlight on one of his favorite bands. At one point, Ace (Carrey) visits a nightclub to touch base with a contact for his case as death metal band Cannibal Corpse performs on stage. As drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz told Vice, one of Carrey’s representatives reached out for the band to appear in the film.
“We were very skeptical. I mean, we’re a brutal death metal band, and Jim Carrey wants us in his movie? He’s a funny guy. We knew him from In Living Color, which was a show that I watched all the time. So it was very bizarre, but we figured if our label is calling us about it, it had to be legit. But at that point, we got worried about how we would be portrayed.
They didn’t initially say what they wanted us to do, so we wanted to make sure that we weren’t gonna be portrayed in a comedic way. We’re a brutal death metal band, and we’re serious about what we do. This seemed like it would be a cool opportunity, but we didn’t want to be made to look like fools or to be laughed at. But they assured us that we were going to be portrayed as Cannibal Corpse. They weren’t gonna make fun of us.”
Indeed, the team behind Ace Ventura: Pet Detective was true to their word. The movie never pokes fun at the band. In fact, the result was quite the contrary. The closest the movie gets to a gag at the band’s expense is Ace asking a head-banging fan if the person he’s looking for is there, to which Ace takes his grooving nods as a “yes.”
Jim Carrey could reprise his iconic role one more time in ‘Ace Ventura 3’
Carrey reprised the role of Ace Ventura in the 1995 sequel, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. But he hasn’t returned to the franchise since. Instead, Ace Ventura fans have gotten an animated series and an ill-conceived 2009 spinoff titled Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective. Now there may be new hope that Carrey could return to the fan-favorite role.
A new Ace Ventura film is reportedly in the works from the writers of Sonic the Hedgehog. Although nothing is official, fans hope this means Carrey — who plays Dr. Robotnik in the Sonic films — is onboard. That all depends on whether the actor chooses to go through with his announced plans to step away from Hollywood. Only time will tell.
