Jim Carrey has always been appreciated for his acting, much like Anthony Hopkins. They both have a unique style with how they bring their characters to life, and in many ways, they manage to have these characters connect with the audience. While both do not follow the rules and regulations of method acting strictly, they have tried their hand at the acting style at least once.
Carrey was applauded for his performance in Ace Venture: Pet Detective and he credited his acting to Hopkins and his style of playing Hannibal Lecter. While both the actors used a similar method to play their characters, their roles were opposites. The two are very different from each other.
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Anthony Hopkins Is Not Fond Of Method Acting
Jim Carrey revealed that he met up with Anthony Hopkins after watching him play Hannibal Lecter. He presumed that the actor, much like him, had taken inspiration from animals to make his character stand out. Hannibal is a serial killer and cannibal, a character that Hopkins used method acting to bring to life. Carrey, on the other hand, took inspiration from birds to perfect Ace Ventura.
“I called Anthony Hopkins, because I love Anthony Hopkins. And so I asked him to dinner. We found out over dinner that our method was exactly the same for Ace Ventura and Hannibal Lecter. Exactly the same.”
Hopkins, however, revealed that he is far from okay with method acting. To him, the idea of keeping work and personal life separate also includes how one would act around other people. He admitted that he was not fond of being the personality of the character for a long time and frankly thought that people who do use method acting are not good people to be around.
Jim Carrey Brought His Own Touch To Ace Ventura
Jim Carrey took on the titular role in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective as the movie came out in 1994. The role was originally meant for Rick Moranis, but the actor believed that he could bring a unique twist to an otherwise boring character. He thought that the character had a lot of potential and that he could reap on. So he took up the role and understood that what Ace needed was for the people to despise him.
“He wasn’t like, ‘All righty then.’ He just was playing it straighter and I thought, ‘Ooh, this is going to be a pet detective, hmm, and he’s really playing it kind of straight.’ And then he turned it on when we started filming, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s the funniest person.’”
Courtney Cox admitted that her experience of working with Carrey had been incredible. To her the actor was amazing. The two tried out a sequence together before filming had started. She confirmed that he was completely different once the filming began. The charisma that he brought to the character gave him a lot more than what the audience would have initially met with.
Source: Huff Post
