Despite hinting at retiring a few years ago, Jim Carrey is still a working actory, and has even suggested that he’s open to making another film in The Mask franchise if the idea is “right.”
Carrey’s comments came in a new interview with Comicbook.com discussing his role in the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Revising his previous statements about stepping away from acting altogether, he explained that he is now considering each potential project individually, rather than “retiring” outright.
Then, asked if he’d be open to returning to The Mask, Carrey replied, “Oh gosh, you know, it has to be the right idea. If somebody had the right idea, I guess.”
Continuing, he clarified that whether he agrees to do a project or not is “not really about the money,” but rather about finding an arrangement that’s worthy of his time. “I joke about the money… But I never know,” he said. “I said I’d like to retire, but I think I was talking more about ‘power-resting,’ because as soon as a good idea comes your way, or a group of people that you really enjoyed working with and stuff, it just — things tend to change.”
To that end, Carrey said that “anything’s possible in this world” and that he doesn’t want to confirm nor deny taking on any future projects, because “I go out on a limb and say these things, and then fate makes a liar out of me. So who knows?”
Carrey starred in the original The Mask film in 1994, but turned down a $10 million offer to star in the 2005 sequel, explaining in an interview with Barbara Walters that making Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls turned him off from reprising roles.
Now though, Carrey seems to be softening his stance a bit. Elsewhere in his recent interview, he shared thoughts on a few other high-profile roles from his past, like the titular character in 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. According to Comicbook.com, Carrey was “more enthusiastic” about reprising the Grinch, especially in light of modern-day CGI technology.
“The thing about [the Grinch] is that, on the day, I had to do that with a ton of makeup, and I could hardly breath, and it was an extremely excruciating process,” he said. “The children were in my mind all the time. ‘It’s for the kids, it’s for the kids, it’s for the kids.’ [But] now, with motion capture and things like that, I could be free to do some other things.”
Carrey first suggested that he would retire from acting in 2022, citing his desire to live a quiet life and paint more as his reason. Since then, the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 marks his singular film role.