Jim Carrey’s rise to fame is one of Hollywood’s most inspiring success tales. Throughout the 1980s, his captivating performances in films like Once Bitten and Earth Girls Are Easy, have inspired producers to stand in line to hire him for their projects. On the other hand, another acclaimed star, Hugh Grant was able to carve out a successful career, in large part because of his success in rom-coms.
So it is difficult to imagine Jim Carrey and Hugh Grant acting in many roles that are similar to one another. But, contrary to what it may sound like, the Notting Hill actor was very close to landing one of Carrey’s best roles.
In the 1997s, Grant came very close to landing the lead role of Fletcher Reede in Tom Shadyac’s directed fantasy comedy film, Liar Liar.
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Despite having very different approaches to their best comedic roles, Hugh Grant came very close to outperforming Jim Carrey in one of his most iconic roles. In his interview with SYFY Wire, co-writer of Liar Liar, Paul Guay stated that they were looking for
“Someone who can do physical comedy and who is at home with tugging at the heartstrings [and] has some a certain amount of dramatic heft.”
Grant was brought up, and it seems that he was very interested, until controversy erupted over his 1995 arrest in Los Angeles as part of a vice operation. At this point, Carrey became interested in Liar Liar’s narrative as he was eagerly awaiting the start of his 1998 satirical science-fiction drama, The Truman Show.
Paul Guay further revealed:
“Because Jim is irritated that Truman Show isn’t ready, he says yes to our script. That’s a pretty different actor than Hugh Grant and part of me thinks: ‘Wouldn’t it have been fun to be able to compare the two versions?’ You’ve got the kind of more sly, sophisticated British, very classy guy — or guy who seems really classy, because he’s British — versus the ‘I need to outdo Jerry Lewis’ that Jim Carrey brings to the table.”
Well, Carrey gave one of his best performances in Liar Liar, with the story providing the perfect backdrop for his signature comedy antics.
What Else Do We Need to Know about Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar?
Jim Carrey‘s performance as Fletcher Reede in Liar Liar required a lot of physicality. He had to show how Fletcher became a nervous wreck due to his curse of inability to lie. The actor, now 61, acknowledged in a conversation with The Los Angeles Times that he had not anticipated the role to be so physically taxing. To quote the Canadian-American actor:
“We had a little story come out on the set about me screaming and yelling before a take. A story came out in the Globe about how I was out of control. So for a couple of days I was kind of calm, and Tom [Shadyac] said, ‘You know what? Don’t even listen to that stuff, man. Just scream your head off if you need to.’”
The director, Tom Shadyac was more familiar with the Ace Ventura: Pet Detective actor than others because they had worked together on several movies together. According to Shadyac in a Reddit AMA, Carrey did improvise a lot, but there was much more to the process than just being silly.
“Jim is an incredible improviser. He’s flat out a genius when it comes to creating fresh moments during a scene. And yes, he improvises a lot. But that’s always after he’s thought about the script from every angle. So he does his homework, considers every written choice, acts the written choice for us, then is free to let it rip!”
The actor received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy for his role in Liar Liar. The film received positive reviews from critics and audiences, grossing $302.7 million against a $45 million budget.
Liar Liar is available to rent on Apple TV.
Source- SYFY Wire
