The 30 Funniest Moments from ‘The Mask,’ According to Its Director
In 1993, Jim Carrey was still just that white guy on In Living Color, but by the end of 1994, he was king of the world. In one year, Carrey had three hit comedies that topped the box office: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in February, The Mask in July and Dumb and Dumber in December. Each is great and nostalgic in its own right, but given the fact that The Mask turns 30 this week, we caught up with the film’s director, Chuck Russell, to talk about the film’s 30 greatest moments.
The Loaner
“There’s a Stanley Ipkiss inside all of us,” says Russell, referring to Carrey’s character in The Mask. “That was the beauty of the character. Life treats us like shit and humiliates us and seeing it through Stanley’s character is funny and charming the way Jim portrayed it. The loaner car he gets is an example of that.”
Stanley Watches Cartoons
“When my grandparents babysat me, all I would do was watch Tex Avery cartoons,” recalls Russell. “Tex was a visionary.” Russell knew there would be plenty of Tex Avery influence on the animation in The Mask, so he included a couple of scenes of Stanley enjoying cartoons.
The Mask vs. the Clock
“It’s a visual pun — he’s killing time,” Russell says of the scene where The Mask smashes a cartoon clock with a sledgehammer. “There are elements of The Mask that are very Alice in Wonderland-y, and that’s probably the most Alice in Wonderland-y one.”
Stanley and Tina Almost Kiss
When Stanley gets arrested, he’s visited in jail by Cameron Diaz’s Tina Carlyle. They almost share a kiss before they’re interrupted. When they’re left alone again, Stanley assumes they will pick up where they left off, and Carrey does a very small piece of comedy with his lips.
“The Mask was a new cast, and I didn’t know Jim Carrey’s limits, which was great fun because he barely had any,” Russell says. “It’s a lot more fun than having a known star and having to protect the brand — we were helping to create a brand. As for Cameron Diaz, she was gutsy. She hadn’t acted before, but she had great comic timing.”
‘Alright, Alright, Unfreeze!’
When The Mask is told to “freeze” by the police, he takes it literally and becomes frozen in ice. Once he’s frozen, he’s told to put his hands up, to which he replies, “But you told me to freeze.” It’s a pretty standard cartoon gag, but Animal House alum Peter Riegert as Lt. Kellaway, who hilariously shouts, “Alright, alright, unfreeze!” really sets it apart.
“Riegert is the greatest straight man in the world,” says Russell. “You can feel his frustration.”
The Mask’s Mini Horn
Like with the cartoon clock, Russell says, “The scene with the horn that says ‘Squeeze Me Gently’ is me trying to be a little surreal.”
The Cops Empty The Mask’s Pockets
As he’s being arrested, the police empty The Mask’s pockets, finding bowling pins, a fish and a bazooka. “In the comics of The Mask — which was a horror comic that was much darker than the movie — The Mask’s pockets were a portal,” Russell explains. “This scene came straight out of a scene in the comics where he pulled an oversized ax out of his pocket.”
The Smoke Heart
“When The Mask is the Frenchman, Jim puffs a heart out of his nose and shoots an arrow through it with cigarette smoke,” recalls Russell. “That was Jim’s idea. We’d had a prop that didn’t work on the set, so Jim thought of this instead and asked if we could do it. I just said, ‘Yeah, great idea.’ It was my first CGI improv.”
The Mask vs. Mrs. Peenman
After smashing the clock, The Mask encounters Stanley’s angry landlord while she’s wearing a makeup mask. “It’s fun that she has the green face mask on,” says Russell. “It’s so dumb and hysterically funny to me. I never laughed so much on a set in my life.”
The Mask Gets Ready
When The Mask gets ready to go out, he cartoonishly rushes through the routine of brushing his giant teeth, doing his nonexistent hair and shaving his nonexistent beard. “It’s about rhythm in comedy, and that’s a real rhythm shot,” says Russell.
‘Do I Feel Lucky?’
In the final fight, The Mask does a funny impression of Clint Eastwood, which Russell says is an impression he saw Carrey do in his stand-up act, which is why he included it.
Balloon Animals
Shortly after Stanley first turns into The Mask, he encounters a gang of criminals and distracts them by making balloon animals. While there are some CGI enhancements — like the balloon that turns into a tommy gun — most of what The Mask does as a snappy carnival barker was accomplished by Carrey himself.
As for where the line was when deciding whether or not to enhance Carrey via CGI, Russell says, “It was changing every day. We actually saved some money in VFX because we would finish a scene and I’d look at the dailies and I wouldn’t want to mess with it.”
Stanley Fights Dorian
When a maskless Stanley fights Dorian Tyrell (Peter Greene), aka the bad guy, Stanley’s fighting technique includes pathetic moves like eye-poking. Still, Russell says that he knew he wanted to have Stanley win the fight without the Mask, and he sought guidance from his mentor Harold Ramis to make sure he agreed, which he did.
Charlie Jumps in the Water After the Mask
Stanley’s best friend in the movie is Charlie, played by the late comedian Richard Jeni, whose character gets the movie’s last laugh. After Stanley throws the Mask into the water at the edge of the city, Charlie sees how much better Stanely’s life is now, so he leaps into the water, desperately chasing after the mask. Russell says he cast Jeni because he was a fan of his stand-up.
Dorian Fixes His Hair
Given that he was the villain in the movie, Peter Greene mostly played his scenes straight, but Russell notes one funny scene with the Dorian Tyrell character. “There’s this point where Jim gets an Academy Award as a cowboy and a miniature audience pops up. Peter asked me, ‘How the hell am I supposed to play this?’ I said, ‘Play it like a portal opened, and suddenly you’re onstage at the Academy Awards. So you should straighten your shirt and be nervous about how you look.’ It was a subtle thing, but it was fun to work out the rules of the magic in The Mask.”
Stanley’s First Transformation into The Mask
While doing so, he spins in a spiral just like Taz from Looney Tunes. Ironically, Russell says, “I always found the Tasmanian Devil frightening as a child, and I wanted the transformation to be a little scary for Stanley’s character and for the audience. We actually did spin him, too. We spun Jim on a turnstile on stage, so there was a core image we worked with.”
The Final Fight
After an extended stretch where Stanely doesn’t have the mask, he finally gets it back for the final fight of the movie. “We had to make things even more surreal,” Russell explains. “So he painted a flush valve near the fountain, and he flushes the villain down it. That was as far as we went with his ability to reshape reality.”
‘Sorry, Wrong Pocket’
During the balloon animal scene, The Mask reaches into one pocket and pulls out a loose condom. “Sorry, wrong pocket,” he exclaims.
“Like Tex Avery, not all of this was for kids,” Russell says.
‘That’s a Spicy Meat-a-Ball!’
Keeping with the extreme surrealism in the final fight, The Mask saves Tina by swallowing a bomb, which explodes inside of him as he declares, “That’s a spicy meat-a-ball,” which Russell says is a reference to a TV commercial from the 1960s. “It’s an old reference, but the way Jim says it is very funny.”
‘I Am Seriously Stressed Out Here’
When a mask-less Stanley breaks out of jail, he steals the guard’s gun and runs into Lt. Kellaway. He nervously points the gun in Kellaway’s face and hilariously warns him, “I am warning you, I am seriously stressed out here!”
“That’s a great example of the difference between how Jim played Stanley and Jim played The Mask,” Russell says. “Because Stanley is forced to be brave in that scene without the mask because he no longer has the mask.”
Stanley vs. the Desk
“At that time, Jim hadn’t done much straight romantic comedy and to get him to dial it down, it was like a pressure cooker for him. He always wanted to go wild,” Russell recalls. “In some of those smaller scenes, what you’re seeing is Jim’s raw talent just oozing out. There’s a thing he does with the drawer and his tie when he first meets Cameron Diaz. It’s all pretty lowbrow humor, but he turns it into art. Those tiny, naturalistic moments are just as funny to me as the big CGI moments.”
Milo Jumps Into the Jail Cell
“I love when Milo is jumping up to the window when Stanley is in jail,” says Russell. “That dog was amazing all the time. It was like a firehouse dog in that it loved having a job. This dog had a real sense of ‘What’s my next shot?’ The joke on set was, the dog hit his marks better than the young cast. He knew his stuff and enjoyed doing it.
Milo and the Frisbee
“One of my favorite moments is after the bank robbery — the cop is at the door, and Jim is shoveling the money into the closet with a frisbee and Milo latches onto the frisbee,” Russell tells me. “That moment turned into a little bit of an improv because Milo really wouldn’t let go of the frisbee.”
The Mask’s Many Nightclub Transformations
He’s an accountant, a matador, a Russian dancer, Elvis and more in very quick succession. “The fun of that scene was figuring out how many characters we could fit in there,” says Russell.
Milo Wears the Mask
This scene was in the script from the start. “I knew I had to pay off the presence of this dog,” says Russell. “Otherwise, why is he in there? Also, a big thing in the script was doing change-ups, and the wildest thing I could think of was to put the mask on the dog, which let us go full Tex Avery.”
‘Cuban Pete’
“The thing about ‘Cuban Pete’ was, Jim was sick,” shares Russell. “We only had two nights to shoot a big scene with a lot of extras, dancers and effects. Jim had a terrible flu that night, and he was throwing up. I told him, ‘You don’t have to shoot this’ because a night shoot goes until dawn, but Jim said he could do it, and he did. It was one of his most physically demanding scenes, too.”
‘Hey Pachuco’
“The dance was such a cool element in The Mask, and it was an opportunity for me to do a secret musical,” says Russell, referring to the dance number with The Mask and Tina dancing together. “‘Hey Pachuco’ is classic, and both Jim and Cameron were great dancers. I was able to get back to this fantasy version of the 1940s that I wanted a touch of in the movie. A lot of things came together for me as a director in that scene. It was a combination of the song, the talent and some of the technical tricks we did with CGI that lent themselves seamlessly to that scene.”
Milo Fetches the Keys
“I tend to rate the pure physical comedy a little higher, even though I love the stuff I did that was enhanced with CGI. For example, the ‘Not cheese, keys’ scene where Stanley is in jail and Milo is trying to get the keys off the sleeping guard. Stanley’s body English, trying to get the dog to get the keys, and the dog taking the cheese from the sandwich. It’s such a stupid joke, but it’s so funny. The work that Jim and Milo did was some of the best comedy improv between a human being and an animal in cinema. It’s honest, too, with no visual effects and no camera tricks. It’s just a performance between Jim and our dog. To this day, the looks they give each other blow my mind.”
The Tex Avery Wolf Howl
This is the scene most directly inspired by Tex Avery cartoons. “Sometimes in film, you get like a molecule of an idea first, and I thought that transformation — of The Mask into Tex Avery’s wolf — with this brand new tool of CGI would really work,” Russell explains. “This tool was a fresh canvas and I was committed not to cover Jim up with it, but to make it an extension of his performance. That wolf whistle is the best example of something that’s an extension of a performance that came from Jim’s heart. He became that wolf in the scene; we just enhanced it with CGI.”
Stanley Tries to Become The Mask with Ben Stein
“There’s something about the Ben Stein scene that still kills me,” says Russell of his favorite moment in the film. “Jim does a physicalization in the scene where he puts the mask on, and we, the audience, expect him to change and his character expects him to change and he just can’t. So Jim physicalizes this thing with his hips while holding the mask to his face. He’s desperately trying to change, yet he can’t. And it’s all played against Ben Stein’s dryness. It’s some of the best physical comedy ever — it’s up there with Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy.”
