William McNamara initially branded Jim Carrey a “loser” when they worked together on Doing Time on Maple Drive.
Actor William McNamara
The actor, now 61, did not think the then-unknown comedian, now 64, had potential to become a star because he showed up to a read-through for the 1992 TV movie looking “really shabby” compared to the polished, well-known stars around him.
Appearing on the latest episode of the Media Path podcast, William recalled: “They’re all really established, good and well-dressed – and this guy comes in late – tall, gangly, thing guy with messy hair wearing a beat-up black t-shirt and torn black jeans and Keds.”
He added: “He came in and right away I was depressed. I’m like, ‘God, I thought we’re gonna have a great cast except for this one loser.’
“I didn’t know he was. I said to myself, ‘This guy is a loser. What’s he doing here? Why is he in with us?'”
During the cast read-through, William felt that Jim’s performance was “not good”.
William said: “And I’m just sitting there going, ‘Wow, I was going to be in this great TV movie, and this guy is going to ruin it,’ because one person can ruin a whole thing, of course.
“It’s a show about a family. It’s the dynamic. You’ve got to have the family dynamic, or everybody’s going to fail. And so I was very disappointed with this guy.
“He was a total – in my opinion – loser. I shouldn’t say that, but he just came off as a loser.”
William stayed away from Jim during a cast bonding tennis session, organised by Ken Olin, the director of Doing Time on Maple Drive.
He remembered: “I ID this guy as a loser. Am I going to keep my distance from the loser because I don’t want to catch whatever he’s got?
“And so I tried to stay away from him. He kept following me around, and I’m just like, ‘Why is this guy…this always happens to me, the losers always like me. Maybe I’m a loser because the losers always hang out with me.
“And so I kind of felt sorry for him.”
It turned out that Jim was trying to speak to William for acting advice.
After he “globbed on” to William, the pair went for lunch, and William realised he got Jim completely wrong.
William explained: “I’m sitting there, and he’s sitting there, and people are looking over the table. And I’m like, ‘Oh, wow.’
“And people are starting to get up, and I see them like going over and getting like paper and pencils from the waitress. And I say to Jim, ‘These people … they’re gonna get my autograph, they’re gonna line up and get my autograph.
“But I see the people getting ready and they start lining up like an autograph convention [and] they’re like ‘Jim, Jim’, and I’m like ‘Jim?'”
William soon realised the group of people wanted to meet Jim, following his success In Living Color.
He said: “So at this point I’m like, ‘OK, this guy is somebody famous … there was 20 people that wanted his, not one person knew who I was.”
From then on, the pair “started hanging out” and William knew Jim was “going to be a superstar” when the latter made a speech on the first day on set of Doing Time on Maple Drive.
According to William, Jim told the cast and crew: “‘Listen, I’m not a great dramatic actor, and I know that. And I’m gonna try really, really hard to be good. I wanna be good …
“If you think I’m doing a lousy job, or anything I do wrong, and you have advice, just come right up to me and tell me, ‘Jim, you’re not good, do something different.’
“I was just like, wow, this guy is crazy, but in those 20 days, he became a phenomenal actor.”
Jim went on to find success in the likes of Bruce Almighty, The Mask and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
