Cannibal Corpse‘s performance cameo in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective still goes down as one of the coolest appearances from a metal band in a movie, period.
Why were they in the movie? Did the filmmakers do it in jest? Was Jim Carrey actually a fan? Loudwire recently resurfaced an interview they did a few years back with Cannibal Corpse drummer, Paul Mazurkiewicz.
In the clip, Paul lays out the facts once and for all about how the appearance came to be. Here’s what he had to say, transcribed below.
The interviewer starts out by asking Paul if it’s true that Jim Carrey personally recommended Cannibal Corpse for the film. Paul replied: “That’s 100 correct. That’s the only reason we got into that movie… Jim [Carrey], and a little bit of the director [Tom Shadyac], too. He [Shadyac] was excited, but obviously I think it was mostly Jim really being interested in this kind of music and finding it intriguing, and it was very exciting.
He wanted us really bad. Looking back at that, we actually declined I think in the beginning because there was a scheduling conflict. We were still living in Buffalo at the time and, not that that mattered, but it was more that we had a tour booked. We were going to be going to Europe when they wanted us to fly down to Miami to do our scenes.
So, we were like, we wanted to do it, but we don’t want to blow off a European tour that’d been booked. We’re not these kind of people just to go do a movie. That’s not the importance here for us. Of course, it’s doing our tour.” Paul continues:
“So we said man, that’d be great- we’d love to do it. But, sorry, the timing ain’t right. They actually moved shooting around our schedule for us. They came back saying okay that’s fine we’ll get you down after that tour. We’re like okay, if they’re willing to work with us then it sounds like they want us really bad, so yeah! A little side note to that story.”
In a previous interview that Paul gave Vice, he explained that Jim Carrey himself was the one that refused to let the band go, stating: ‘a few days went by and we got another call saying, Jim Carrey really wants you guys. They’re gonna rearrange their schedule to accommodate you.’ That just blew us away, because this is a major movie production, you know? I mean, Jim wanted us that bad. So of course we agreed to do it. We were just kids from Buffalo, so it was very exciting for us to be wanted in that way.”
Jim Carrey has of course gone on record many times since the 90’s about his infatuation with our beloved genre. Exhibit A- telling Arsenio Hall on his show in the 90’s about his love for thrash metal:
@wearethepit did you know he was such a fan? #jimcarrey #thrashmetal #metalmemes #metaltok ♬ original sound – THE PIT
Exhibit B: Seems like Carrey had a hand in the recent Pantera inclusion in the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie soundtrack. Jim explained after the movie was released that he loved Pantera and actually randomly bumped into Dimebag Darrell once.
In his earlier interview with Vice, Paul told the hilarious story of first meeting Jim Carrey, and that the actor personally requested that they play ‘Hammer Smashed Face’ in his movie.:
“On the day we flew down there, they picked us up at the airport and took us directly to the set to meet Jim and the director, Tom [Shadyac]. They were filming at this house that was supposed to be the house of Courteney Cox’s character. We’d never been to a movie set, so we were pretty impressed.
They took us over to the [actors’] trailers, and Jim comes over to us wearing his Ace Ventura garb, going, “Oh my god! Cannibal Corpse! It’s so great to have you guys here!” Then he starts rattling off lyrics and tells us he wants us to play “Hammer Smashed Face.” It was insane.” He went on: “he specifically asked for that one. It hadn’t been around that long, but it already seemed pretty close to a fan favorite.
When we released Tomb Of The Mutilated, that song was a hit right off the bat. But it was still very new, and he already knew the song. I remember he also rattled off the lyrics to “Rancid Amputation,” which was on our previous album. So he knew what was going on. It was so surreal—we were freaking out because we’re on a movie set meeting Jim Carrey, and he’s freaking out because he’s meeting Cannibal Corpse.”
Horns to Jim. We leave you with the iconic scene in question, followed by the Loudwire clip with Paul:
Actor Jim Carrey Talks About Meeting The Late Dimebag Darrell And His Love For Pantera