Many rookies in the industry are given guidance and encouraged by the more experienced actors when they enter the industry. A similar instance happened with Jim Carrey when he starred in his first big film alongside Hollywood legend, Clint Eastwood back in the 1980s. As Carrey will later reveal, it was Eastwood’s support that led the actor to become one of the most successful actors the world has ever seen.
Jim Carrey talks about how he came to meet Clint Eastwood for the first time
Jim Carrey is one of the most established actors in the industry at the moment but that was not the case when he first auditioned for the movie, The Dead Pool back in 1988. Carrey was still known for his standup comedy at the time and was only portraying supporting roles. In the movie, Carrey was to work alongside one of the greatest actors in Hollywood, Clint Eastwood who was portraying the role of Inspector Harry Callahan.
After becoming a famous actor in the 90s, Jim Carrey appeared at an AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony for Clint Eastwood in 1996 and revealed how the Hollywood legend helped him quite early in his career and how his audition for the movie The Dead Pool went. He said,
“Clint Eastwood was one of my first supporters in the industry. At the time, I was a struggling actor, and I was cast to play the part of a crazed drug-fiend rockstar named Johnny Squares in the Dirty Harry film named The Dead Pool. For my audition, I was put on tape singing an Alice Cooper song,” he explained. “I went completely nuts, tearing up the office, doing contortions, spitting into the camera. Afterward, I wondered if I had gone too far. In those days, I still worried about that sort of thing.”
Jim Carrey did end up getting the role of Johnny Squares in The Dead Pool and further went on to talk about how Eastwood let him do what he wanted in the movie by showing confidence in him.
The Ace Ventura actor opens up about how Clint Eastwood supported him
Not only did Jim Carrey get the role of Johnny Squares in The Dead Pool but also he got appreciated by Clint Eastwood for his audition clips. Carrey said,
“When I finally met Clint, he just said to me [in Clint Eastwood’s voice] I…loved that tape. And I showed it to all my friends.'”
Carrey further opened up about how he was so mesmerized by the actor, that he even suggested to Eastwood on the very first day of filming about some of the ideas that he had. Carry said,
“Naturally, I was elated. I wanted to do the best possible job I could do for this man. On the first day of shooting, I showed up with all these wild ideas. I said, ‘I have a ton of ideas I wanna try out, Mr. Eastwood, if you don’t mind.’ I was expecting a little bit of resistance, but Clint just looked at me, and looked at the producer David Valdes, and said [in Clint Eastwood’s voice], ‘Well, maybe we’ll just turn the camera on and…let him go.'”
Although The Dead Pool was not much of a critical or commercial success at the theatres, the movie still turned out to be a major turning point in Jim Carrey’s career as he went on to star in the series In Living Color a few years later which helped him rise to mainstream fame.
The Dead Pool is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
