Dumb and Dumber is regarded as one of the 100 best movies of the 1990s and a certified cult classic. Most of the comedy classic’s success was attributed to the impeccable chemistry of Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. However, not everyone was sold on Daniels playing Harry Dunne. 30 years after the film’s release, Peter Farrelly revealed the story of Daniels’ Dumb and Dumber audition.
Before appearing in the slapstick comedy, Daniels had only done a few comedies aside from his celebrated dramatic work in films like Ragtime and Terms of Endearment. The topic came up as Farrelly discussed his new film Ricky Stanicky with CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast. When asked about casting “serious” actors like Daniels and William H. Macy in comedy, the Oscar-winning director delved into convincing New Line Cinema to pick the Radio Days actor for the outlandish role, saying:
Jeff Daniels was so funny in that movie. The whole time I had that script, I saw Jeff Daniels in it. But when I mentioned it to the studio, they're like, ‘No, no, no, no. We gotta get a comedic actor.’ I said, ‘Why? He's not writing it. He's just acting it.’ Jeff Daniels. Watch Purple Rose of Cairo. He knows comedy anyway. And they were like, ‘No, no, no, no.’ And then finally, we had to have Jim read with him. They made him come in and read, which I was embarrassed about. I would never have Jeff Daniels read. He’d earned just to get an offer. But he read, and I remember he walked out and Jim was like, ‘That's the guy.’ He goes, ‘That guy scared me. … He had me on my heels the whole time.’ Jeff freaked him out. Like he was pushing back in ways where, Jim being Jim, you had to be pretty sharp to push Jim back. And he goes, that is the guy.
If someone like Jim Carrey can be intimidated by Daniels, then the Emmy-winning actor was made for the role, as Farrelly mentioned. The director-writer knew Daniels would work as he recalled the actor’s 1986 comedy Something Wild being one of his favorite films. Although he was Carrey and Farrelly’s top choice, New Line faced a dilemma when it came to paying the beloved actor. The Raising Arizona director opened up about Carrey’s record-breaking salary affected Daniels’ payday unexpectedly, saying:
And by the way, so then the studio, we said, Jim wants him. And now they're in a bad spot. Because Jim's a star and he has more say than we do on our first movie. And they offered … at that time, Jim got the most money anybody had ever gotten for a comedy. $7 million That broke the record. … Jim's getting $7 million. So they offered Jeff $50,000, figuring he'd just passed. But he didn't. He said, ‘Okay, 50 grand.’ He didn't push back. He did it for $50,000. He had a backend (though), and made a lot of money.
It seemed like Jeff Daniels was playing the long game. He ended up cashing in on the comedy’s financial and cultural success. Dumb and Dumber grossed over $247 million worldwide despite getting a mixed reception. The cult classic comedy solidified Jim Carrey as a movie star and rebranded and revitalized Daniels’ Hollywood career. He appeared in lighter movies like 101 Dalmatians and Pleasantville afterward. The comedy was followed up by the 2014 sequel Dumb and Dumber To two decades later. Of course, the Terms of Endearment star’s career continued moving forward on both the big and small screens. Check out Peter Farrelly’s full ReelBlend interview in the clip below.
If you want to relive every laugh-out-loud moment of Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, stream Dumb and Dumber through a Netflix subscription. Don’t forget to look over our movie schedule for any upcoming theatrical and streaming comedies.
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