Some Jim Carrey fans consider 2004 If you leave me I'll erase you to be one of the actor's best films, even if it is very different from the comedian's usual genre of comedy. The film also stars Kate Winslet as Carrey's estranged lover, but the role could have been Beetle Juice Beetle Juice star Winona Ryder.
According to Esquire, Ryder opened up about how she failed to get the role of Clementine in If you leave me I'll erase you. She met director Michael Gondry during the casting call for the acclaimed film, and Ryder was hoping to get the role based on the high quality of the script. The problem was that a “random paparazzo,” among others, kept pestering her during the meeting. As Ryder tried to convince Gondry that this wasn't the norm for her, she could see on his face that the director wasn't thrilled. Ryder seems to think that this probably cost her the role in the film.
“Era such a brilliant script and we were at this little restaurant and people kept coming up to me and there was some random paparazzo outside, which was pretty unusual for me, but I only remember [Gondry’s] faceand trying to convince him that this is not normal, and I know this is not normal,” Ryder said.
Winona Ryder realized that it could be a distraction
THE Mr. Deeds star continued: “I'm not complaining in any way. But there was all this time when I I felt like I would be a distraction, too. I figured that out.. Certainly, in the '90s, I noticed that. And there was also a sense of a changing of the guard. As you get older, there are these new, younger actresses. It's so ingrained in you how disposable actresses can be, our shelf life. You always hear it.”
Revered as one of the best films of its era, If you leave me I'll erase you was written by Charlie Kaufman, who co-wrote the story with Gondry and Pierre Bismuth. The film imagines Carrey and Winslet as lovers in a complicated relationship, both agreeing to undergo memory-wiping procedures in order to forget about each other completely. Two decades later, the film is still frequently praised, with pop star Ariana Grande even recently naming a new album after it, Eternal sunafter the film's title. It currently has a 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film's other stars, in addition to Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in the two lead roles, included Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Tom Wilkinson, David Cross and Ellen Pompeo. Steve Golin and Anthony Bregman produced the film.
Ryder can be seen in Beetle Juice Beetle Juice when the sequel will be released on September 6, 2024.
Source: Esquire