What each NBA coach would be doing if he wasn’t an NBA coach
By John Buhler
Rick Carlisle: Jim Carrey’s body-double
It’s not easy being Jim Carrey. We collectively took for granted the funniest Canadian in the United States in the 1990s. Once he realized that The Mask wasn’t going to change the world, Carrey gave some of his Dumb and Dumber money to some guy named Harry and he took care of it.
Shortly before the filming of Liar, Liar, some out-of-work basketball coach named Rick Carlisle magically appeared on Carrey’s doorstep. “Alrighty then,” said Carrey, as he got to work in making Carlisle the greatest body-double American cinema has ever seen.
Carrey taught Carlisle everything he knows and they made some great movies together over the next few years. That time Andy Kauffman stood there awkwardly on the stage in Man on the Moon, that was really just Carlisle forgetting his lines, as Carrey was slightly under the weather that afternoon.
Every shot of Truman Burbank walking around town in complete confusion, yes, that was Carlisle. That might have been his best acting performance to date. Let’s be real. It’s pretty hard to contain Carrey in a suit and tie. What he wears in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is what he wears in real life. The hair just isn’t as cooperative as it once was.
Therein lies the problem. Around the time of Bruce Almighty, Carlisle’s hair couldn’t keep up with Carrey’s. While Carrey did semi-acknowledge that Carlisle was an incredible silent actor, male pattern baldness was definitely getting in the way of their working relationship.
Carrey has since been more selective about his movies, as Carlisle has been relegated to being behind the scenes as another producer of sorts. Out of respect for the job Carlisle did filling in for him those few years, Carrey took on the leading role in Mr. Popper’s Penguins in 2011. Together, they felt that film was the best synopsis of what it was really like secretly working together from 1994 to 2002.