During the 90s, a number of comedic performers were able to rise up through the ranks in Hollywood, and each of them left their mark on the industry. Stars like Adam Sandler and Damon Wayans found plenty of success, as did Jim Carrey, who remains one of the most successful comedic performers of all time.
Carrey's career is filled with mega hits, including The Mask, which was released back in 1994. That movie features Jim Carrey at his absolute zaniest, and the script gave him a lot of wiggle room to have some fun with the character. However, the source material for the movie is actually quite dark, and because of this, the movie itself was actually meant to be more like a horror project.
Let's take a closer look at The Mask and hear about the initial concepts for the movie.
Jim Carrey Is A Comedy Legend
There aren't too many comedic performers in history who have had as much success as Jim Carrey has, and a lot of his biggest hits came during the 90s and the 2000s. During that period, the actor was in one huge hit after the next, and he was making an absolute fortunate while entertaining his global audience.
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Dumb and Dumber, Liar Liar, Me, Myself, & Irene, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas are just a few of the massive hits that Carrey has had during his career in entertainment. He has certainly done some television work, but he has primarily been a big screen powerhouse.
To date, one of Carrey's biggest and most popular films is none other than The Mask, which helped cement his place as a major film star, while also giving Cameron Diaz a massive boost in mainstream popularity, as well.
'The Mask' Was A Huge Hit
The Mask, which was released during Jim Carrey's legendary 1994 campaign, was a huge hit and a visual delight that sucked fans in from the very beginning. Carrey's over-the-top performance was a perfect fit for the project, and after making over $300 million, Carrey had another huge hit on his hands.
Carrey was quite obviously the perfect pick for the lead in the film, but the studio wasn't so convinced at first.
Director Chuck Russell revealed, "For me though, Jim Carrey was my biggest inspiration. I just said to the studio ‘we have to get this guy Jim Carrey for the role and make this a comedy!’ At that point New Line thought I was off my rocker and then I didn’t hear back from them for about a year. When they eventually came back to me they said ‘tell me how this story about a guy, a girl and a dog in a night club will work.'"
The Mask is a comedy delight that can get pretty dark, and most people don't know how dark the source material actually is. It's because of this that the movie itself was actually conceived as a horror project.
It Was Conceived As A Horror Project
Director Chuck Russell talked about the horror elements of the project, saying, "By coincidence, I had seen the same original Mask comic they ended up buying, and I thought, ‘That’s really cool, but it’s too derivative of Freddy Krueger.’ It really was. He would put on the mask and kill people. And have one-liners. It was a really cool, splatterpunk, black and white comic. They’ve redone the comics to be more like my movie, but the original comics were really cool, dark and scary. But I knew, as a film, it would be very reminiscent of Freddy Krueger."
Separately, Russell told TheHollywoodNews, "I had already brought New Line some success with the third Nightmare on Elm Street film. So then they came back to me and we started to look at adapting The Mask as a new Horror series. Like a lot of comics the plot was thin enough to be interpreted, but the style was so cool and I absolutely loved that Zoot suit."
Russell is completely right, as the original comic gets a lot darker than most would expect. It could have made for an interesting horror series early on, but molding it into a comedy was a brilliant move by the director. It helped turn the project into a classic, and it functioned as a showcase for Jim Carrey and his insane comedic abilities.
The Mask is a 90s classic that nearly looked a whole lot different thanks to its source material. Thankfully, it was turned into a comedy, and the rest is history.
