In 2022, Jim Carrey announced that he was retiring from acting, effective after Sonic the Hedgehog 2’s release. His last role was that of villain Dr. Robotnik in that film series. At the time, Jim told Access Hollywood that he would only come out of retirement for a script “in gold ink” that was hand-delivered by angels. (Which, IMO, would be the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind script, which is one of my all-time favorite movies.) Well, two years later, Jim is back for more Hedgehog action and sadly, it’s not because angels showed up with tidings of a great script. Rather, his accountant showed up with a reality check. At the London premiere of Sonic 3, Jim ‘fessed up that he’s making movies again because he needs the money.
Jim Carrey said he came back from retirement because he needed the money.
Carrey announced in 2022 that he’d retire after the release of “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” in which he played the villain Dr. Robotnik.In an interview with Access Hollywood in April 2022, Carey said, “If the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink that says to me that it’s going to be really important for people to see, I might continue down the road, but I’m taking a break.”
That break was short-lived. Less than two years later, Variety confirmed in February that Carrey was coming out of retirement to star in “Sonic the Hedgehog 3.”
In the film, premiering on December 20, Carrey plays Dr. Robotnik and his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik.
Speaking to the Associated Press at the London premiere of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” on Tuesday, Carrey said, “I came back to this universe because, first of all, I get to play a genius, which is a bit of a stretch. And I just, I bought a lot of stuff, and I need the money, frankly.”
Carrey’s salary for the previous two films isn’t public knowledge, but “Sonic the Hedgehog” and its sequel were surprise box-office hits — a rare occurrence for video-game adaptations. The first film grossed $319 million, and the sequel made $405 million in ticket sales.
In February 2023, Carrey also put a Los Angeles home he’s owned for 30 years up for sale. The mansion was originally listed at $29 million, but after nearly two years on the market, the price has now been cut to $19.75 million.
Welcome back, Jim. I saw the first two Sonic movies with my kids. I liked the first one and thought the second one was…well, it was a thing that happened with some fun moments but an otherwise messy plot. I never got around to taking my older son to see Red One (oops, not sorry!), but both of my kids want to see Sonic 3, so there’s probably no getting out of that one.
As far as Jim’s confession that he needed the money, I respect the honestly here. Hopefully, he’s working with a financial advisor or someone who can help him get back on track and learn to curtail his spending. Other actors, most famously Nicolas Cage and Al Pacino, have also had to take roles simply because they were broke or in heavy debt. Movie stars, they’re just like us! Only, they can turn around and get paid millions of dollars to film a family-friendly movie sequel which is guaranteed to make them even more money on the backend. We have to sell sh-t on Facebook Marketplace and donate plasma. Potato, pot-ah-to.
Jim Carrey explains his return to playing Dr. Robotnik in "Sonic the Hedgehog 3": "I bought a lot of stuff and I need the money, frankly." pic.twitter.com/pIFJPuAyRM
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) December 10, 2024
Photo note by CB: I included bonus pics of Keanu Reeves at the Sonic 3 premiere! He’s Shadow. photos credit: James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon.
Jim Carrey has always been pretty raw and honest but I can also see that being a joke. He has surprisingly great range for someone who had so many comedic roles that required a high level of goofiness. I’ve enjoyed watching his career. My first sighting of him was in The Dead Pool.
I also appreciate the honesty. Regular people take jobs for $$$ sometimes. Celebrities aren’t really any different.
My autistic nephew is absolutely wild about sonic. It’s his special interest to the 10th power.
I’m so glad that Jim Carrey is back and making another movie. He’s absolutely amazing as Robotnik. Truly. My fan scene is from movie 1, where he improvised a villain dance. It was incredible.
Bit off topic (Jim Carey/Dr Robotnik), but…
Thanks to CB for including Keanu! I saw pics of him and Idris from the premiere, and couldn’t believe that Keanu looked so small compared to Idris.
Looking forward to Sonic 3, with the addition of Shadow.
I would LOVE to hear about some of the “stuff” purchased by Jim Carrey!
When details about how Nic Cage blew his money came out a few years ago, it was a trip.
On the other hand, times are a little different now, so maybe I don’t want to know.
I heard a story the other day about wealthy folks who are having tattoo work done under anesthesia. Supposedly Dak Prescott (american football player) spent 11 HOURS under anesthesia getting tattoos. SO disgusting on many fronts…
I mean people can spend their money the way they want to, but I’m gonna judge the hell out of them for doing things like that…if nothing else, read the room and keep your mouth shut about the dumb ways you spend your money…
Wow that was a 180! Lol!
My niece loves these movies. I like the coupling of Sumpter and Marsden in the movie and who can resist Knuckles with actor-who-should-be-in-every-Shakespeare-production Idris Elba? What does Carrey spend his money on? Many years ago he was taking on a lot of movies but now not so much. Other than Sonic what else has he been in? Curious why he’s taken a step back from acting.
The hair dye is so obvious. Too distracting and it’s even worse on Keanu than Jim! It’s OK to have gray, guys!
I wish it was okay for women to be gray. And I respect their choice to style their hair however they want.
@Bumblebee–Come to Portland, Oregon. You’ll see lots and lots of women rocking their beautiful silver locks, including me!!
I live in one of the Plastic Surgery Capitals of the world (Beverly Hills/WLA/Santa Monica area) and there are a **lot** *more* women now embracing the gray, myself included.
After losing my hair twice (to chemo from leukemia and then a stem cell transplant), I decided that whatever comes back, stays lol. My hair didn’t come back to its former glory, it came in thinner, darker, and now with gorgeous gray streaks that look like highlights. Last night at dinner, a friend I haven’t seen in quite a while was stunned that I wasn’t still coloring my hair. I think I’m the *only* one in my group who *isn’t* at this point! But I’m loving it, and not just because of the time/money for upkeep!
Keanu has a gray beard – makes me wonder if the hair is actually natural. Why dye one and not the other, and my girlfriends with naturally black hair are not gray at all yet (in their late 50s). Beards and heads do have different color hair coming in. I always found that kinda fascinating.
I like gray hair on men but they are in a business that might require otherwise. Hair dye also adds some thickness so I can see it being attractive for that reason.
I’ve always loved him. He will always be Fire Marshall Bill to me, and his award winning speech where he credited the Wayans and said it was Black people who gave him a chance brought tears to my eyes. He was homeless as a kid and grew up in poverty, so there’s probably a learning curve there with finances like many people who don’t come from money (and some that do).
I really wish finances was a class you had to take to graduate high school – like how to pay bills, calculate how much property tax you would owe, what you can buy on minimum wage, what is your income tax at this income, what is the interest rate on this credit card and what happens when you buy a $300 item on it and just pay the minimum, how to invest. It’s such a shame so many of us learn these lessons the hard way. It’s taken me years to get myself together financially and there were some really tough lessons along the way, which could have been easily avoided, had I just known the information.
They really set us up to be poor so we can be fainting in some Amazon warehouse somewhere cause the owner won’t turn on the air conditioner to save a few thousand dollars.
It’s nice to see Jim Carey back. I loved him in the first Sonic film!
I feel the same way about Jim but this forum has a lot of folks who hate him because they believe he pushed his ex-GF Cathriona White to suicide, which always seemed like a really cruel take to me.
To your second paragraph, my dad recently told me that if he could volunteer for anything during his retirement years, it would be to teach disadvantaged/economically-struggling kids how to manage and invest their money. I think my husband thought it sounded a bit out-of-touch (his point: most young people don’t have money to invest) but I really thought it was a great idea.
Two easy things that would make a dramatic difference in terms of upward mobility for younger generations and could be done through Congress: 1) more aggressive student loan forgiveness and 2) capping the interest on credit cards. Obama’s Credit CARD Act of 2009 was a great start towards curbing credit card companies predatory behavior towards the 18-25 demographic.
It was so sad and obviously she was deeply unwell but those texts that came to light were… not a great look for Jim, as I can recall.
I love your dad’s thinking and you can start investing with as little as $10 you don’t have to be rich to do it. And it’s probably best to paper trade starting out, not putting real money behind it, but learning to understand patterns, algorithms, how the Feds cutting interest rates affects the stocks, etc. I really love his idea.
I wasn’t familiar with the ex who committed suicide. He’s one of those people I admit I know very little about other than he grew up very poor in Canada and I’m glad he’s no longer with Jenny McCarthy.
100% agree on finance classes. It’s a topic that feels scary to a lot of people and so they just ignore it.
I completely agree. It should be a math course like geometry or Algebra, that you have to pass before you graduate.
He’s so talented and as a 90s kid, I really loved growing up with his movies but I always think of that situation with the makeup artist ex gf. It was questionable and hard to reconcile with his boisterous self deprecating funny man persona.
No mention of the Sonic movies is complete without including the lovely Ben Schwartz! He always seems genuinely excited to be part of these. Great cast.