Recently I found myself watching Inside the Actor’s Studio with Jim Carrey. I felt ashamed for forgetting how amazing he is. While in recent years he hasn’t put out his best work, (*excluding the fascinatingly beautiful I Love You Philip Morris) it certainly doesn’t deter away from the fact he has been robbed of this award. He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor for The Truman Show and for Man on the Moon. (*Truman was in the Drama category while *Man was in the Musical/Comedy category) Despite being nominated and winning two years in a row, he was completely snubbed by the Academy both times. Even though his portrayal of Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon should’ve gotten him an Oscar prospect, there was some hard competition in the 2000 Oscar race, and still didn’t stand a chance against Alan Ball’s American Beauty. Even though it’s been a little overrated over the years Kevin Spacey’s remarkable performance couldn’t be beat that year. He was also nominated again in 2005 for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by the Golden Globes, but even if the Academy had nominated him Jamie Foxx’s portrayal of Ray Charles in the biopic Ray was a shoe in to win and no match up was going to beat him. This is why the fact he didn’t win or get nominated for his performance in The Truman Show is a tragic mistake on the Academy’s end.
Here were the Golden Globe nominees in 1999 for Best Actor in a Dramatic Role.
Wilde: Stephen Fry
Saving Private Ryan: Tom Hanks
Gods and Monsters: Ian McKellen
Affliction: Nick Nolte
The Truman Show: Jim Carrey
While most people were expecting Hanks to win, Carrey took home the Globe and the Hollywood Foreign Press knew how deserving he was of this. As a whole The Truman Show is one of the most perfect movies to date. The structure, story, score, acting is superb. One of the most riveting scenes is a crazed Truman driving a frightened Meryl around the city trying to leave but being stopped at every turn. Before I move on, here were the nominees and the winner of the 1999 Academy Awards.
Winner – Life is Beautiful: Roberto Benigni
Saving Private Ryan: Tom Hanks
Gods and Monsters: Ian McKellen
Affliction: Nick Nolte
American History X: Edward Norton
Hanks, McKellen and Nolte were in the Globe running too. Instead of Stephen Fry the Academy nominated Edward Norton. His performance was most likely too controversial to grab a win. Then put into various lists of many winners over the years that shouldn’t have really won the award, Roberto Benigni took home the Oscar. Through a lot of blogs and articles Benigni’s win was described as unjust being that he was the obscure curveball in the group. It’s always nice that the smaller, more gracious performances get recognized, but unless they are truly superior they shouldn’t win.
Not even nominating Jim Carrey was a horrific mistake. It has been known throughout the years the Academy Awards are driven with politics and a strong love for dramatic performances. Only being 12 at the time I wasn’t as engrossed in the awards season as today. Perhaps Jim failed to promote his performance in a suitable way the Academy would’ve deemed reputable. Recently Monique famously did not promote herself except by promoting how anti-Academy she was, and still took home the Best Supporting Actress prize. The Academy has also been allergic to comedians and comedies, except when fellow In Living Color alum Jamie Foxx won for Ray. With this past year it gives hope that the Academy has lifted the Comedy Curse, with multiple nominations and winners with strong comedic backgrounds. Bridesmaids was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. Groundlings alum Nat Faxon and Community co-star Jim Rash won with Alexander Payne for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Descendants. So the question is what the hell happened in 1999?
My guess is Carrey’s tongue in cheek approach to awards season, (which I can only guess because of his acceptance speeches from the Globes) or his unpredictability at the awards could’ve scared them off. Granted Carrey has put on some ridiculous, but still hilarious stunts at other venues, namely the MTV Movie Awards. Jim has won the most in the history of the MTV Movie Awards, with 11 wins including the MTV Generation Award. Even Truman Burbank got a MTV movie award, but despite this Carrey never did anything so over the top to cause a huge controversy. Trey Parker and Matt Stone showed up in dresses and on acid when their song “Blame Canada” was nominated for Best Song. Sacha Baron Cohen has caused plenty of problems for the Academy red carpet, with his most recent stunt pouring the “ashes” of Kim Jong-Il all over Ryan Seacrest. At the time was Jim too much of a gamble to take, and they felt he wouldn’t have taken the ceremony as seriously as it should’ve been? Obviously they were afraid because there is no way that it was because of the performance. The movie grossed over 125 million, so popularity wasn’t an issue either. The Truman Show has a 95% critical rating on rottentomatoes.com, making it his highest rated movie according to the website. (*His highest rated work is actually a 30 minute documentary about the work of Michel Gondry, so in this case that is omitted.) Eternal Sunshine is right behind with a 93% rating, and although Man on the Moon ranks at only 62% the audience ranked it at 74%.
So through the box office, the critics and the facts I have given proof that Jim Carrey’s performance was critically and widely received. Maybe sometime in the future Jim will finally get a golden statue. He’s been deserving of this for a long time. Even though Dumb and Dumber is not the typical Academy choice, I believe his work in it is one of his greatest to date as well. Why shouldn’t it be? Melissa McCarthy shit in a sink and got a Best Supporting Actress nomination. There was one scene in the movie, small, and definitely not the most widely talked about throughout the past 18 years, but it truly solidified for me how great of an artist Jim Carrey is. When he’s leaving the bar near the end of the movie to go find Mary’s house, he looks up at an old newspaper replica of the moon landing. He shakes his head and quietly says; “No way, that’s great…” opens the doors and loudly shouts, “WE LANDED ON THE MOON!” That whole part was improvised because Jim happened to look up and see the picture on the wall. My point is, if he puts that much creativity, vigor, and character into Dumb and Dumber, think just for a second what he probably did during his time making The Truman Show. This is why Jim Carrey should have an Oscar on his mantle, and even though he doesn’t, I have full confidence that one day he will.
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