10 Actors Who Gave Two WILDLY Different Performances In The Same Year
3. Jim Carrey - A Christmas Carol & I Love You Phillip Morris
Much like Gary Oldman, Jim Carrey is a certified master of disguise and clearly relishes any opportunity to surprise audiences with something totally unexpected. And that he certainly did in 2009, when he first appeared in the black comedy I Love You Phillip Morris and portrayed real-life gay con artist and prison escapee Steven Jay Russell.
It was in of itself quite unlike any role Carrey had previously played, a contrast which only proved more evident when, at year's end, he starred in Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol.
Even accepting that there's obviously a chasm of difference between playing a gay con-man and the grouchy, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge - not to ignore the various Ghosts of Christmas who Carrey also portrays throughout Zemeckis' film - the assignments were also totally different on a technical level.
I Love You Phillip Morris was a far more "conventional" acting assignment for Carrey in filmmaking terms, whereas A Christmas Carol saw Zemeckis once again attempt to push the boundaries of CGI, with Carrey delivering his entire performance through cutting-edge motion capture tech.