There’s a wonderfully endearing story about a young Jim Carrey, long before he was a big Hollywood star. In his childhood, he lived in a camper van when his father lost his job and worked as a janitor at his school — starting his shift right after he finished classes.
Carrey, who began doing stand-up comedy at age 15, dropped out of school at 19 and moved to Hollywood in search of stardom. In his mid-20s, as encouragement, Carrey wrote himself a check for $10 million for “acting services rendered,” post-dated it 10 years and kept it in his wallet.
Seven years later he got a $10 million check to star in “Dumb and Dumber.”
But oh what a difference those millions have made. Carrey is now routinely odd. He believes the MMR vaccine causes autism, his ex-girlfriend killed herself (her parents sued him for providing the drugs she used), and he’s into a whole new-age Zen thing (“There is no me. There is just things happening.”).
Carrey has also gotten political. He’s vehemently against guns — even though he’s starred in several movies with lots of gun violence — and has repeatedly blasted the National Rifle Association.
Now, the actor has sent a message to the world about the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 dead. On Monday, he posted on Twitter a painting that shows a young bloody victim, lying in a pool of blood by some schoolbooks. The blood looks like red stripes of the American flag, and Carrey titled the post “Oh say, can’t you see?!”
Some of his 18 million followers liked the piece. “This is so powerful. Your art speaks a million words,” wrote one user. “This is just as brutal as the truth is, awesome work,” said another.
But others didn’t.
Wrote one: “How many armed guards keep watch over you? I’m just curious. Because everyone says all the Hollywood actors are pushing to disarm the American citizens but they keep armed guards. You’re definitely not one of them, are you?”
But just like that, Carrey was gone. He put another post on Twitter that read “fading into the everything for awhile. See ya soon.”
So if you want to find Carrey, you know where he is — in the everything.