Jim Carrey
“There is no me, there is just things happening”, say famous actor and comedian Jim Carrey in a bizarre New York fashion week interview that has since gone viral.
Throughout the late 80’s and 90’s, and even still to this day, Carrey has starred in a number of big comedy films- Dumb & Dumber, Ace Ventura, Liar Liar, and Bruce Almighty, just to name a few. He has been hugely successful, winning multiple golden globes, MTV movie awards, and others.
Although he is well known for his humorous attitude, it is less known that Carrey has a history of mental illness. In 2014, he spoke out about his struggle with depression, for which he was prescribed Prozac for a period of time. Carrey reported that he only needed it as a temporary “crutch,” until he finally realized that everything was okay. He came to understand that life is just a series of ups and downs, or “hills and valleys” in his own words. He began to accept that everyone experiences mild despair at one point or another, and that’s perfectly okay. He ended his interview on a spiritual note, reminding viewers that life is beautiful, and that miracles can come true if you really just believe in them.
Fast forward to 2015, and Carrey’s ex-girlfriend has just committed suicide days after the couple split. For the past two years, Carrey has been involved in a rough legal battle, and just recently, it’s been revealed that his ex had left a note to Carrey on her iPad two years prior, blaming him for introducing her to “cocaine, prostitutes, mental abuse and disease.”
One would think that this immense tragedy and difficult news would send Carrey back into a downward spiral of depression, but with his newfound perspective on life, he seems to be doing okay. Days after the bizarre fashion week interview, Carrey sits down with W magazine to better explain his thoughts.
It was after reflecting on his many roles as an actor that he began to question his own self-identity. “It was about immersing myself in a character or a couple of characters so deeply that I realized that myself, Jim Carrey, was a character as well and something I could push aside at will, so once you know that, you go, ‘Who am I?’”
To answer his own question, he continues, “We’re a bunch of ideas cobbled together to look like a form. There’s a body and there’s a mind, but the body is part of the field of consciousness, just dancing for itself and it’s no different than a plant or a chair or your phone—it’s all one thing. Because we are sentient, there’s a consciousness, and we have to deal with this thing we create, like a fortress of ideas around it."
When asked about his depression, Carrey replied, “I have no depression in my life whatsoever, I don’t have meds, I don’t have supplements, I don’t have anything. I’ve got a couple of fish oils a day and the rest of it is just good diet and a little bit of exercise and understanding that I don’t exist.”
“The only way to [overcoming depression] is to step into the river of tears and the sorrows of your life. The things that everyone is avoiding with everything from drugs to drink to sex and gadgets and whatever else you can distract yourself with, all of it is designed for you to never stop going and moving and, for god sakes, not feel the abyss. Don’t allow yourself to feel the abandonment and pain that you’ve suffered. And I’ve done it; I’m through it. I’m sure there will be things that happen again, but I realized that by letting myself fall into it completely, that it’s not to be feared. Death is not to be feared.”