It seems that few of the famously busy people in Hollywood have been keeping quite as busy lately as Jim Carrey. So far this year, he's been making movies, joining causes, and even having his art displayed in public to rave reviews. With a plate as full as his, it wouldn't seem like the fifty-one-year-old star of stage and screen would have any time left for anything else, but somehow he's even managed to get mixed up in America's ongoing screaming match over gun control, much to the outrage of some conservatives.
With all that he gets up to off-screen, it can be easy to forget that Jim Carrey is a professional actor and filmmaker. At any given time, he can be counted on to have several projects working their way through the development pipeline. His latest offering is "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone," a madcap comedy costarring Steve Carell, which is about a professional magician who has to contend with an aggressive rival from the streets. Burt leaves magic and has to rediscover what made him love it in the first place. "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" is scheduled for theatrical release on Mar. 15, 2013.
"Kick-Ass 2" is another Carrey film that is slated for release this summer. This movie is directed by Jeff Wadlow and tells the immortal tale of a grown man who gets to live out his high school fantasy of fighting crime as the costumed hero Kick-Ass. Carrey is also in preproduction for "Loomis Fargo," a comedy that was inspired by one of the biggest bank heists in American history. Yet another project, "Dumb and Dumber To," brings Jim back together with Jeff Daniels and seems to be on track for a release scheduled sometime in 2014.
It might come as a shock to some, but Jim Carrey has ADHD. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the frenetic pace of his off-stage work. Since 2006, Carrey has been involved with his own Better U Foundation and has been active as a benefactor to numerous charities, including the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Comic Relief, and the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, among many others. He has also lent his high celebrity profile to publicizing the plight of imprisoned Burmese democracy advocate and human-rights crusader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Carrey has been active politically, as well. He has famously argued against the widespread use of childhood vaccinations, claiming that additives in many vaccines are "toxic" and should not be administered to very young children. He has also publicly expressed his support for a now-debunked study linking childhood autism with mercury-based preservatives, which used to be common in many vaccines. Lately, he has earned the ire of many conservatives with his public remarks on the current debate over stricter gun regulation. On Feb. 2, the star tweeted: "Any1 who would run out to buy an assault rifle after the Newtown massacre has very little left in their body or soul worth protecting." This has prompted an outcry among gun-control opponents, but Carrey has so far refused to back away from his remarks.
In December 2012, Carrey was the subject of an Internet hoax that aimed to spread the rumor that he had died, either in a plane crash with up to seven other celebrities or as part of a freak snowboarding accident. Needless to say, the reports of Jim Carrey's death were exaggerated.
Far from his final resting place, Carrey has even managed to put together a public viewing of his art. The event, which was held in Palm Springs this January and was titled "Nothing to See Here," met with reviews that were generally positive. This was the first time the actor has allowed his work to be shown in a public setting, and Carrey has expressed a keen interest in doing it again. In December, he was interviewed for the feature article in the January 2013, issue of Vanity Fair Magazine.
For thirty-three years, Jim Carrey has been an active-some would say hyperactive-presence in America's celebrity culture. He has divided his time professionally between acting and writing, producing and promoting his various film projects. He has also been keeping busy working for causes he believes in and keeping his name fresh in the public's mind. It's certainly a rare actor who can manage to be busier in the fourth decade of his career than he was at the beginning, but the pace Carrey has maintained since his first credited roles has only increased lately, with-thankfully-no end in sight anytime soon.
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