The film Jim Carrey regrets making
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(Credit: New Line Cinema)
How Jim Carrey chipped his tooth for ‘Dumb and Dumber’
Jim Carrey is one of the masters of modern comedy, with his surreal style of slapstick among the most unique out there. A true king of the visual gag, the way Carrey can contort his face to deliver genuinely mirthful yet horrifying impressions is arguably his defining feature, as subtlety is anathema to him – he’s full-blown and unapologetic for it. Love his comedy or hate it, no one can deny Carrey his place in the great pantheon of popular culture.
After landing a recurring role in the sketch show In Living Colour in 1990, Carrey went on to star in some of the zaniest roles of the era. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and even his turn as a campy, Joel Schumacerified version of The Riddler in 1995’s Batman Forever standout as career highlights. Added to these moments, no one will forget his unhinged performance as Charlie in Me, Myself & Irene, which stands out as one of his very best, if slightly underrated roles.
Carrey has also starred in a range of other memorable titles such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Bruce Almighty, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, to name but a few.
However, one of his most treasured movies is 1994’s Dumb and Dumber. In the Farrelly Brothers classic, Carrey stars as Lloyd Christmas alongside Jeff Daniels who plays Lloyd’s equally hapless best friend Harry Dunne.
The plot kicks off after Lloyd, a limousine driver, drives Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly) to the airport, who leaves a suitcase full of money in the car. Lloyd has a crush on her, so he convinces Harry to go on a road trip to Aspen, Colorado, to return the suitcase. What ensues is a madcap journey, as they soon find out that the money is tied to the criminal underworld and was meant to be left at the airport.
One of the best comedies of the ’90s, Dumb and Dumber, is iconic for many reasons, not to mention the ridiculous look Jim Carrey adopted for the role. Donning a bowl cut and chipped tooth, these two changes to his appearance really helped to reflect just how much of an idiot Lloyd Christmas is. Per a 2019 report in The Ringer that spoke to some of those who worked on the film, Carrey went to an extreme length to get his tooth looking like this.
In the article, the film’s producer, Brad Kevoy, revealed that it was Carrey’s decision to have a chipped tooth and the bowl cut, with it being purely down to interpretation. Of the first time he saw Carrey as Lloyd Christmas, complete with the bowl cut and chipped tooth, he said: “It was a total interpretation. I just could not stop laughing when I saw him. He didn’t even need to say anything.”
Carrey had always had a split tooth as it resulted from a fight during elementary school. Looking back on how he managed to chip it for the role of Christmas, first assistant director, J.B. Rogers said: “The night before, Jim took a beer bottle… hooked the cap over the cap on his tooth, and pulled the cap off his tooth. Because he thought his character should have the split tooth. He didn’t think of it until that night.”