“I’m being fairly serious.”
After making us laugh for the better part of four decades, Jim Carrey is officially retiring from acting. Or is he?
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The slapstick comedian turned Hollywood star became a household name when his career took off in the early ’90s. He’s best known for memorable and acclaimed roles in films like The Mask, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, as well as classic TV series like In Living Color.
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Most recently, Jim starred in the Showtime comedy-drama Kidding and also made a surprise appearance on The Weeknd‘s latest album, Dawn FM.
Anyway, after building a résumé of credits that go on and on and on, it sounds like Jim is at least considering stepping away from the cameras, maybe even for good.
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“Well, I’m retiring…probably,” he said in a new interview with Access Hollywood, responding to a question about his thoughts on the role Dolly Parton apparently wants to offer him in a biopic about her life.
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“I’m being fairly serious,” Jim explained, noting that his decision may not be final. “If the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink, that says to me that it’s going to be really important for people to see, I might continue down the road. But I’m taking a break.”
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“I really like my quiet life, and I really love putting paint on canvas, and I really love my spiritual life,” he continued. “And I feel like — and this is something you might never hear another celebrity say as long as time exists — I have enough. I’ve done enough. I am enough.”
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Those who follow Jim on Twitter — or watched his 2017 documentary short, Jim Carrey: I Needed Color — know his creativity extends to painting and other forms of visual art.
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The following year, Jim told the Hollywood Reporter that increasing corporate influence in the film and television industry pushed him “toward a different type of creative outlet,” and he found that “[he] really liked the control of painting — of not having a committee in the way telling me what the idea must be to appeal to a four-quadrant whatever.”
Whether or not Jim’s acting hiatus is permanent remains to be seen, but he said we’ll continue to hear from him either way.
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“I’m going to continue to be in the world, no matter what,” he shared. “We have more of an effect on the world than we know. We don’t have to be multi-hyphenates to affect the world.”
You can watch Jim’s Access Hollywood interview here or via the clip above.
