From The Truman Show to Ace Ventura, these are the roles that have defined Carrey's career (2024)

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11. The Cable Guy (1996)

The Cable Guy is a dark comedy thriller starring Carrey and Matthew Broderick. Carrey portrays a cable installer named Chip Douglas, who becomes overly attached to a new customer, Steven Kovacs (Matthew Broderick). Chip misinterprets Steven’s politeness as a desire for friendship and becomes intrusive and aggressive in his attempts to hang out. The humor is a mix of slapstick and awkward situations as Steven tries to avoid Chip’s increasingly bizarre and obsessive behavior. As the movie progresses, the humor takes a darker turn, with Chip’s actions becoming more threatening and Steven struggling to escape his clutches.

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10. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

9. Liar Liar (1997)

In one of many films with Jim Carrey that he used as a personal playground, Liar Liar follows a lawyer on the fast track to success who is also a father with a steadily deteriorating relationship with his family. Don’t let the summary fool you, thought. This movie is full of Carrey antics, which all start when his son makes a wish on his birthday that his dad won’t tell a lie for just one day. Torn apart by his lucrative career of lies and his responsibility as a father, he struggles through the longest day of his life, where he quite literally cannot lie.

8. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

In his breakout role, Jim Carrey becomes Ace Ventura! Pet Detective. Shocking audiences around the globe with his cartoonish performance, Carrey thrives in the role that defined the early part of his career. Similar to Anthony Hopkins’ role as Hannibal Lecter, which was inspired by animal traits (a tarantula and a crocodile), Carrey shaped Ace Ventura by personifying a tropical bird. Strangely, Hopkins and Carrey would eventually discuss their shared approaches over dinner.

7. The Mask (1994)

In The Mask, Carrey gets a chance to play an actual cartoon character, allowing him the freedom to exercise his rubber-like facial expressions and a wild conglomeration of voices inspired by old-timey cartoons. This film was Jim’s second big deal after Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and it allowed him to seamlessly roll into stardom. Unfortunately, his father Percy Carrey passed away in September 1994, three weeks before the release of this film. Jim put the $10 million check he received for the film in his father’s pocket, where it was buried with him. This film is an incredible display of Carrey’s prowess, showcasing all of his wackiest characters.

6. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)

In the second and final installment of the Ace Ventura franchise, Carrey takes this fearless and exuberant character to the next level and beyond. Adding to his impressive list of six films released within two years (1994-1995), you don’t get the slightest sense that the attention is wearing on Carrey. This film has become a staple in the comedy genre, and it’s still referenced and quoted decades later.

5. Man on the Moon (1999)

In one of his more serious roles, Carrey dives headfirst into the role of anti-comedy “song and dance man” Andy Kaufman. A beautiful and memorable ode to Kaufman helmed by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest director Milos Forman, Carrey re-lived all of the absurdist’s most popular moments in pop culture as if they were happening for the first time. Carrey had always looked up to Kaufman, attributing some of his real-life meta-antics (such as his drunk guy performance on the Arsenio Hall show) to the late, great showman. Many actors on set who knew Kaufman personally claimed that he lived through Carrey for the filming of this incredible biopic.

4. Dumb and Dumber (1994)

Filmed and completed during his acting marathon, Carrey is joined by Jeff Daniels as they play two well-intentioned imbeciles who just want to do what’s right. When Lloyd (Carrey) intercepts a briefcase left behind by a woman he drives to the airport, he and his friend Harry (Daniels) go on an unnecessarily difficult journey halfway across the country with the goal of winning her heart and returning her briefcase, but the adventure escalates when they discover the contents of said luggage. This film was a very close runner-up for our list of the best comedy movies of all time.

3. Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton (2017)

This incredibly powerful and reality-bending Netflix documentary is one of the best movies on Netflix, and it chronicles the filming and acting processes behind the film Man on the Moon, where Carrey delves deep into his own psyche as he explores both the public persona Carrey adopted and his time taking on the part of Andy Kaufman. Throughout this film, we see hours and hours of behind-the-scenes footage on set, where Carrey (Kaufman) loses his perception of self and even experiences visceral, tear-jerking moments with the real people who were close to Kaufman. This film is the best place to learn about Jim Carrey as an actor, a character, and a vessel, all of which become ambiguously melded together in a somewhat melancholic showing of sheer talent and wavering identity.

2. The Truman Show (1998)

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

In a conceptual tour de force film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a cinematic masterpiece in which genre, narrative, and the very concept of memory are challenged. Joel (Carrey) is on a train for his usual commute when he meets Clementine (Kate Winslet), a quirky, overtly forward individual, who makes outrageous statements that catch our protagonist’s ear. When their relationship gets nasty, they individually seek out the help of an experimental memory-removal clinic that reminds them exactly why they belong together. Carrey is, for once, the quieter half of this couple, and Joel feels completely broken by the world he lives in. The movie’s trippy, melancholic sequences are a perfect fit for Carrey and Winslet, who carry the emotions of this story beautifully.