Last week, Jim Carrey was in Paris for the César Awards, France’s national film prize and one of its highest honours. The comedy great was recognised with an Honorary César and he met the occasion by delivering an acceptance speech entirely in French. It was, all around, a sweet, charming, well-deserved moment that somehow became overshadowed by conspiracy theories that it wasn’t actually Carrey in attendance, but maybe a clone. Or a drag performer in extremely elaborate makeup.
To be fair, enlisting an impersonator to attend an awards show in their place certainly feels like the kind of high-concept goof someone like Carrey — who doesn’t make a ton of public appearances — might do. But the rumours got so out of hand that both the actor’s publicist and a rep for the César Awards had to put out statements insisting that it was actually Carrey.
Marleah Leslie, Carrey’s publicist, kept her statement blunt: “Jim Carrey attended the Cesar Awards, where he accepted his Honorary Cesar Award,” she told Rolling Stone.
Meanwhile Gregory Caulier, general delegate of the César Awards, issued a statement to Variety calling the conspiracies a “non-issue” and Carrey’s acceptance “a historic moment.” Caulier said Carrey had been planning on attending the Césars since the summer and had been “extremely touched by the Academy’s invitation.”
He continued: “He worked on his speech in French for months, asking me about the exact pronunciation of certain words. He came with his partner, his daughter, his grandson, and 12 close friends and family members. His longtime publicist accompanied him. His old friend Michel Gondry, who has made a film and two series with him, was there, and they were delighted to see each other again … I just remember his generosity, his kindness, his benevolence, his elegance.”
The rumours about the fake Carrey appearing at the César Awards started circulating online last week as people began remarking on his appearance on social media. Though many of these were jokes, a whole lot of engagement-bait started popping up as well, including an interminably long post based on an old clip of Carrey saying “I don’t exist,” but while talking about acting, celebrity, and crafting a public persona.
The drag performer and makeup artist Alexis Stone pushed things even further with a post on Instagram that featured a few photos of Carrey at the Césars and the caption, “Alexis Stone as Jim Carrey in Paris.” While Stone does have a track record of extremely impressive full-body transformations into different celebrities, the last slide of his post was a pretty dead giveaway that this was a joke: A very AI-generated looking image of a mask, dentures, wig, and makeup tray on a table with a blurry Eiffel Tower in the background.
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Nevertheless, in the comments, Katy Perry was dropping arrow-hitting-target emojis, while Megan Fox was exclaiming, “I can’t handle any more stress right now I need to know if this is real.”
From Rolling Stone US
