The 10 Best Jim Carrey Characters, Ranked

Jim Carrey has a long list of brilliant performances in both comedies and dramas, and his best comedies showcase his unique talents. Carrey first established himself as a leading man in the 1990s with raucous comedies such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Mask. Later in his career, he showed that he was just as talented in dramatic roles, appearing in critically acclaimed character-driven films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Even in his more serious works, Carrey is able to inject his unique style of humor.

Jim Carrey’s comedy is known for broad strokes – outrageous slapstick, bursts of rage and absurd facial expressions – but he can be surprisingly restrained when he chooses to be. Carrey’s best characters aren’t just big, bold caricatures, although he has earned his reputation as the king of irreverently silly big-screen comedy. Jim Carrey says that he has retired from acting. While it’s a shame that he won’t be making any more movies, his best performances will still be enjoyed for many years to come, ensuring his place in movie history.

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10 Bruce Nolan

Bruce Almighty (2003)

In Bruce Almighty, Bruce Nolan is a hopelessly unlucky TV reporter who complains to God that he isn’t giving him a fair shake. God, perfectly cast as Morgan Freeman, gives him the chance to take on both his duties and his powers for a week. Bruce Almighty is one of Jim Carrey’s funnier roles, but his access to unlimited power overwhelms him with a sense of injustice and responsibility. Bruce discovers that, despite his good intentions, he can’t make everyone happy. He’s relatively reserved and toned down compared to some of Carrey’s other characters, making him a relatable everyman.

9 The Grinch

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

Dr. Seuss’ children’s books have proven to be notoriously difficult to adapt into movies over the years. His surreal landscapes and esoteric language don’t easily lend themselves to the medium of film, but How the Grinch Stole Christmas tries to balance his unique brand of absurdity with a darker tone. Jim Carrey’s performance as the Grinch helps build the holiday-hating villain into a more substantial character than the one who appears in the book. Carrey portrays the Grinch as a bitter, incompetent loner, which makes the reveal of his sad backstory all the more resonant.

8 Ace Ventura

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) & Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)

Ace Ventura is Jim Carrey at his wildest and most unrestrained. Quiffed to within an inch of his life and stretching his rubbery face to extremes which seem supernatural, Carrey acts like a cartoon character who has leaped into the real world. Across the two films, there is an endless supply of absurd physical comedy, like when Ace emerges naked and writhing from his rhinoceros-shaped vehicle, but Ace Ventura has tons of funny quotes too. The pet detective is a master of profoundly silly humor, and his anarchic worldview is hard to resist.

7 Stanley Ipkiss

The Mask (1994)

Like the Ace Ventura movies, The Mask gives Jim Carrey an opportunity to indulge his most outlandish comedic instincts. The key difference is that while Ace Ventura is an absurd creation in a world of stuffed shirts, the mask gives Stanley the ability to turn the world around him into a colorful, augmented comic book version of reality. The mask was seemingly created by Loki, the Norse god of mischief, giving Stanley the confidence to pursue what he really wants out of life. Carrey’s charisma is vital to making the movie work.

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6 Fletcher Reede

Liar Liar (1997)

In Liar Liar, Jim Carrey plays a sleazy lawyer who is cursed to only tell the truth. This premise doesn’t immediately lend itself to physical comedy, but Carrey spells out the anguish of being forced to tell the truth in bold lettering. One scene in which Fletcher Reede tries to incapacitate himself in a bathroom is an uproarious virtuoso display of silly physicality, but Carrey sprinkles similar moments of comedy throughout the film. Liar Liar combines Carrey’s flair for big, broad comedy with subtle wordplay and logic tricks. Carrey excels at both.

5 Steven Jay Russell

I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)

Jim Carrey doesn’t often play real people, but with con artist Steven Jay Russell, he found someone who mirrors the sort of larger-than-life characters he usually portrays. Steven leaves behind his life as a married man with a steady job to live more authentically. He comes out as gay and starts a life as a con artist. This eventually lands him in prison, where he meets the love of his life. Through multiple prison escapes and some extremely dark moments, Steven’s conflicted inner life is laid bare. Despite a flamboyant and alluring persona, Steven is deeply troubled.

4 Charlie/Hank

Me, Myself & Irene (2000)

Jim Carrey pulls a double shift in Me, Myself & Irene, playing a milquetoast state trooper who has a psychotic break and develops a secondary personality. Charlie is agreeable to a fault and always lets other people use him as a doormat. By contrast, Hank is viciously self-centered and needlessly aggressive. Hank is a manifestation of Charlie’s destructive id, and Carrey differentiates between the two without any ambiguity. Ultimately, Charlie realizes that he may need a bit of Hank more than he would like to admit, and he learns to balance both sides of himself.

3 Andy Kaufman

Man on the Moon (1999)

Jim Carrey got the opportunity to portray one of his comedy idols in Man on the Moon, and his commitment to method acting generated one of his greatest performances. Andy Kaufman was a stand-up unlike any other who traded in a surreal kind of anti-comedy. He was an artist first and foremost, and Carrey captures his outside-the-box thinking and his provocative quirks perfectly. Few actors could have brought such pathos to a character who reveled in artifice and believed so deeply in the transience of all things, but Carrey found the emotional root of Kaufman’s genius.

2 Joel Barish

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey make a delightful duo in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Carrey was cast against type as Joel Barish, who doesn’t have any of the comedic quirks usually associated with the actor. Joel is a melancholic introvert who doesn’t easily connect with people, but Clementine opens his heart up to the possibility of being loved. In some ways, Joel and Clementine complete each other, which makes Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind‘s tragic relationship even more difficult to swallow. Joel needs Clementine, but he has plenty of evidence to suggest things won’t end well.

1 Truman Burbank

The Truman Show (1998)

Truman Burbank is a wide-eyed fantasist long before he discovers that his whole world is the set of a reality TV show. He believes that he is at the center of his own universe, but the difference between Truman and most other people is that he turns out to be right. Despite his dreams of escaping his humdrum lifestyle, Truman is never aloof or dismissive. He’s kind and inquisitive, which makes him very easy to root for. The Truman Show‘s deeper themes would all be for nothing if the character, and the performance behind him, weren’t so compelling.