Jim Carrey has flexed his acting chops playing characters ranging from the eccentric pet sleuth Ace Ventura to villains like the Riddler and the Grinch.
He also once played a Dundonian.
Honest.
Remember Yes Man?
The movie was adapted from Danny Wallace’s outlandish memoir of the same name and opened in UK cinemas on Boxing Day 15 years ago.
Carrey didn’t receive a fee for taking the lead role.
Instead of receiving a pay cheque, the actor took a 36.2% stake in the movie’s profit.
He made a mint thanks to Danny.
Yes Man went to number one in the box office in Britain and the US.
It grossed more than £180 million worldwide.
So just how did a Dundonian become the toast of Hollywood and Jim Carrey?
Who is Danny Wallace?
Danny was born in Ninewells Hospital in 1976.
He spent the first few years of his life in Letham.
The family moved to Richmond Terrace in Dundee when Danny was a toddler.
Some of Danny’s earliest memories were playing football at the Magdalen Green bandstand and reading comics like The Beano, The Dandy and The Topper.
He attended Park Place Primary School and his father was the late Professor Ian Wallace who taught German at the University of Dundee from 1972 until 1984.
Professor Wallace was appointed chair of modern languages at Loughborough University and the family moved to England, where Danny lost his Dundee accent.
“No one understood me,” he recalled.
“There was a lot of staring. So it had to go.”
He began writing comedy in his teens and started working as a trainee BBC producer in his early twenties, working on shows like Dead Ringers and The Mighty Boosh.
It was Danny who challenged comedian Dave Gorman (his then flatmate) to find 54 other people called Dave Gorman and they created a stage-show about their travels.
The words that changed it all: ‘Say yes to everything’
There was the 2003 book Join Me where Danny “accidentally started a cult” before three words uttered by a stranger on a bus were the inspiration behind his next project.
Yes Man was Danny’s second solo book, coming in 2005.
It was written when he had been dumped by his girlfriend and was avoiding people.
He’d text instead of phoning, phone instead of visiting.
Then, late one night, a stranger on a bus told him to say yes to everything.
Danny did.
A spam email from “the son of a murdered sultan” led Danny into an adventure that took him to Amsterdam, where he had his photograph taken with his imaginary dog.
After a series of similarly bizarre adventures, the end of the book saw Danny having been promoted, become a TV presenter and winning £25,000 on a Scratchcard.
The book was a top 10 best seller and was picked up by Warner Bros to be made into a movie with Jack Black originally playing the lead role before Jim Carrey wanted it.
Danny moved to Los Angeles for the duration of Yes Man filming where he hung out with Carrey, Terence Stamp, Zooey Deschanel and a host of Hollywood producers.
One of the first things the producers asked Danny was: “Do you mind if we change your name to Carl? It just sounds more believable.”
He didn’t disagree.
After all, the journey from Dundee to Hollywood was also fairly unbelievable.
Danny had a cameo alongside Jim Carrey in Yes Man
“The producers had given me a trailer as big as my old flat, with a plasma screen and its own bedroom and bathroom,” he said.
“More exciting even than that, was the day I arrived to find my own director’s-style chair, with Yes Man on one side, and Danny Wallace on the other. I was suddenly a Hollywood bigshot with literally no experience or useful purpose.
“But it was great.”
Danny spent weeks promoting the film in the US when filming wrapped.
Yes Man opened to friendly reviews and the Hollywood Reporter said it was Carrey’s “most satisfying live-action effort since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”.
Working as a loans officer, lonely divorcee Carl Allen, played by Carrey, spends his evenings watching rented films by himself and pining for his ex-wife.
His best friend Peter repeatedly tries to get him to re-engage with life, but Carl remains a hermit, saying no to every invitation he gets, including his amorous elderly neighbour.
It’s not until he’s introduced to a corny, hackneyed self-help programme that Carl’s life begins to change.
The course’s leader, Yes Guru Terence Stamp, persuades Carl that the key to success in his life lies in replying in the affirmative to any question that is thrown his way.
Shown the light, Carl re-enters society with a newfound enthusiasm and a determination never to say ‘no’ again.
This, naturally, leads to a series of zany and madcap adventures as he gamely tries to agree to every request that’s asked of him.
He gets amorous with his toothless yet frisky septuagenarian neighbour, takes guitar and flying lessons, hunts for an Iranian bride online, and dishes out loans left right and centre – making the bank a fortune and winning himself a promotion.
Wallace himself had a brief cameo in a bar scene.
Yes Man the movie maintained the spirit of the book and Wallace didn’t feel at all precious about it being reset in America or differing widely from its source material.
Yes Man ruined pub conversation
Jim Carrey learned how to speak Korean, play guitar and even bungee jumping while filming Yes Man, which he described as the answer to the global recession in 2008.
“Comedy is always welcomed, but especially in times like this,” he said.
“It’s like, what else do you want to do?
“You want to have something positive happen in your life?
“I think this is it.
“This is the answer to everything. Yes Man is the answer!”
His diverse career since Yes Man has seen Danny jump between page, mic and screen, while 2014 saw him being awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of Dundee.
His other books include the short read, Danny Wallace and the Centre of the Universe, which was written for World Book Day and saw him visit a manhole cover in Idaho residents claimed was the centre of the universe, and Friends Like These, about a summer spent tracking down old school friends from Dundee.
Life has settled back to normal after the Yes Man frenzy.
“It’s pretty much the same as it ever was, although one thing that has changed is that pub conversation has been ruined for me,” he said.
“When you have that chat about who would play you in the film of your life, I pretty much have to say Jim Carrey.”
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