At the beginning of 1983 and only 21 years old, Jim Carrey decided to move to Hollywood to become a star. Success took a little over a decade to come, but according to Oprah, his secret was to project his dream. To do this, he wrote himself a check for $ 10 million for interpretive services rendered. He did not remember exactly when he signed it, but he did remember the date that was marked to fulfill it. Thanksgiving Day 1995. That same year he changed it for his work in Two very stupid fools.
On January 17, Carrey turns 59, which turned into one of those myths that Hollywood reinvents every decade. For his meteoric rise was punctuated with deep depression, stormy love affairs, and even the suicide of one of his ex-partners, Cathriona White.
Born in a Toronto suburb into a working family, the Canadian actor was the face of comedy in the 90s thanks to such iconic titles as Ace Ventura, The Mask, Two Dumb Dumb, and Liar. And with Crazy House, he became the first actor to earn $ 20 million for a movie. All this after living in a caravan with his family when his father lost his job. And having left school with only 15 years.
The highest-paid actor in Hollywood also shone in dramatic films such as The Truman Show or Man on the Moon. So his career peaked in the 2000s with an assortment of comedic blockbusters (Like God), acclaimed dramas (Forget about me!) And children’s films (A Series of Calamitous Misfortunes). But while he was successful professionally, his personal life was crumbling. Aside from his many relationships, Carrey has been married twice. His first wife was the actress Melissa Womer and their marriage lasted from 1987 to 1995. With her, he has had his only daughter, Jane Erin Carrey, who at 33 is also the mother of a 10-year-old boy, Jackson Riley Santana.
A year after their divorce, in 1996, Carrey married for the second time to Lauren Holly, an actress with whom he co-starred in Dumb and Dumber. But the relationship lasted less than a year. Then came Renee Zellweger, whom he met in Yo, yo yo yo y Irene and with whom he became engaged between 1999 and 2000; model Jenny McCarthy between 2005 and 2010; or the makeup artist Cathriona White, who despite marrying Mark Burton in 2013, had an intermittent relationship with Carrey between 2012 and 2015, the year in which she committed suicide.
According to the autopsy report, the 30-year-old died of a drug overdose after leaving a note for Carrey. “I have spent three days without believing you are not here,” said the young woman, who seemed to attribute her suicide to the break with the actor. “I can go ahead with a broken heart and put all the pieces together again. I could, only this time I don’t have the will power,” he added. Carrey said he was deeply affected by Cathriona’s death and fulfilled his last wish by attending her funeral in a small Irish town and carrying the coffin along with other relatives.
In September 2016, the aforementioned Burton, White’s husband at the time of his death despite the fact that they were separated, filed a lawsuit against Carrey for negligence in White’s suicide, alleging that it was the actor who provided him with the substances that the young woman used to kill himself. The actor responded with a statement in which he strongly denied the allegations. “What a great shame. It would be easy for me to go into a back room with this man’s lawyer to make this go away, but there are times in life when you have to stand up and defend your honor against the evil in this world. Carrey said. “I will not tolerate this heartless attempt to exploit me or the woman I loved. Cat’s problems were born long before I met her and, sadly, her tragic end was beyond anyone’s control,” he added.
A month later, in October 2016, White’s mother, Brigid Sweetman, also reported Carrey for negligence in the young woman’s death, in her case for not informing her that she had several sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis A, herpes and chlamydia, and having unprotected sex with her. Although neither lawsuit was successful, Carrey did take the hit. On the one hand, his career suffered a hiatus, as his public image was damaged by all these scandals.
On the other, his mental health problems rebounded. The actor, who has suffered from depression for much of his life, has withdrawn from public life. And when his disheveled appearance reappeared and his enigmatic statements worried his fans. Among his phrases. We are nothing, we do not exist” or “We do not matter, that is the good news.
In 2018 Michael Gondry, the director who gifted Carrey with perhaps his best role to date in Forget About Me !, rescued the actor to star in Kidding. Many critics praised his performance, seeing certain parallels between this tragicomedy about a host of a children’s program.
