Jim Carrey's incredible life story
Jim Carrey’s life story is a sobering reminder that success doesn’t necessarily bring happiness either.
The famous comedian, who will turn 60 in a few days, used to live in a van , and today he is at the very top of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood. But the road to the stars for Carrey was thorny.
His facial expressions and ability to gesture vividly convey raw emotion have given him a recognizable stamp in the world of comedians.
He grew up lonely and terrified of the world around him and comedy was for him an escape from reality.
Carrey spent most of his youth watching his reflection in the mirror, not out of curiosity or vanity understandable to young adolescents, but out of an indescribable sense of loneliness.
When he was 22, he revealed the reason why he spent hours in front of a mirror.
He tried to cheer up the sick mother with various impersonations of animals. "She was lying in bed and drinking a lot of painkillers. I wanted to help her. " recalled Carrey. His father lost his job when Carrey was 16, shortly after the whole family ended up on the street, and young Carrey, who had been an excellent student until then, dropped out of school and took a job at a local factory as a cleaner to help the family.
At the same time, he began his comedy career by performing at local clubs in his native Toronto, but more serious engagements followed him only when the actor decided to move to Hollywood. He got his first serious opportunity at the cult club 'The Comedy Store' in Los Angeles. The performance he later described as an ‘exercise in self-punishment and punishing the audience’ went inglorious, and the only applause he received was when he came down from the stage.
The comedies' Ace Ventura ',' Stupid and Stupid 'and' Mask ', for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, cemented his position in Hollywood, and after that, he got engagements in more serious films such as' The Truman Show' and 'Man on the Moon '.
At first glance, the actor achieved everything he dreamed. He broke into the comedy world and thanks to his incredible talent, became the first actor in history who earned $ 20 million for his role in the 1996 film ‘The Cable Guy’.
But despite everything, Carrey was still not happy. In private life, because of failed relationships and marriages he couldn't be happy.
He met his first wife, waitress Mellisa Womer, at The Comedy Store. They soon got married and they have a daughter, Jane Erin Carrey. After seven years of marriage, the couple got divorced. The second marriage to actress Lauren Holly, whom he met on the set of the film 'Stupid and Stupid', lasted only eight months. He spent three years with make-up artist Cathrion White, whom he met in 2012 before she tragically took her own life by overdosing on pills.
After a funeral where Jim was part of a coffin-carrying procession, the family of the late White published excerpts from her private diaries accusing Carrey of psychological abuse. ‘You did good things for me but the relationship with you broke me as a person, Jim. You promised me Jekyll and instead, I got Hyde, ' White wrote in one of the messages published by the Daily Mail.
The traumatic event drew attention to a long struggle with depression that Jim Carrey has repeatedly spoken openly about in public.
The actor admitted that the methodical approach for the role of comedian Andy Kaufman in the film 'Man on the Moon' cost him dearly. After finishing filming, he felt depressed trying to get back to himself.
In an interview with the online magazine The Talks, he recalled realizing then that he "could get lost in the role" and began to question who Jim Carrey really is. But the depression the actor is still struggling with started much earlier. His first wife Mellisa Womer described him as an extremely depressed person with whom life was not easy.
Carrey, who has been using antidepressants for years, never hid the fact that he suffers from depressive episodes, and at one time he tried to curb it with alcohol and other opiates. On one occasion, the actor talked about what depression is for him and he said: "People talk about depression all the time. The difference between depression and sadness is that sadness comes from chance - whatever happened to you or didn't happen to you, grief or whatever. Depression is when your body says f*** you, I don't want to be this character anymore, I don't want to wear this mask you created in the world anymore. You need to understand the word ‘depression’ as ‘deep rest’. Your body needs to be depressed. It takes a deep break from the character you were trying to play. "
