4. His Audience
An actor is seriously limited by the audience they're hoping to appeal to. Jim Carrey appeals to younger people. He makes silly movies with lots of sex jokes so that the kids will laugh at the overacting man child, while the adults (who really are kids at heart) laugh at the physical humor and the sex jokes. If an actor tries to change, his audience may ultimately reject and forget him. His audience cannot accept that the actor they like is changing. Basically, Misery. Very few actors can pull this off, but the ones who do successfully start out with a mix of drama and comedy. Tom Hanks is a great example. His early films were silly, yes, but he was understated and took the roles seriously. By the time he got to Forest Gump and Apollo 13, it wasn't a huge stretch, since we've seen him in dramatic stuff before. Same with Robin Williams. Mrs. Doubtfire is funny, but it's also full of really tragic, sad notes. So, when he did last year's Good Will Hunting, it wasn't that huge of a stretch. This, of course, gives me hope for his two next films, What Dreams May Come and Patch Adams. Patch Adams especially shows a lot of potential. Jim Carrey's background started in comedy. He has done comedy for years. It would be like Adam Sandler or Marlan Wayans taking a serious role. Not gonna happen.