20 facts you might not know about 'The Mask'

The Mask started as a comic created by Doug Mahnke and John Arcudi for Dark Horse Comics. However, the comic has little in common with the movie in terms of tone. The Mask, the comic, is dark, violent, and for mature audiences only.

At first, the plan was to turn The Mask into a horror franchise. One of the first ideas was to adapt the comic into a story about a mask-maker who took faces off corpses and put them on teenagers to turn them into zombies. Yeah, this movie was weird for a while.

Michael Fallon and Mark Verheiden have “story by” credits on the movie based on previous attempts to crack the story. Verheiden says that in 1990, New Line already had a draft written. He then provided a second draft that had more humor in it and was kind of like a proto-Deadpool. The screenplay broke the fourth wall a lot, but it was also violent and vulgar. Not long after Verheiden turned his draft in, though, the project went into development limbo for years.

Chuck Russell was hired to direct The Mask, presumably for his horror bona fides. He had previously written and directed the third Nightmare on Elm Street movie and the remake of The Blob. However, Russell actually detested how violent the comic was, and he’s the one who decided he wanted to make a more fun and lighter movie.

Here’s how far Russell took the project away from the dark, violent origins of the comics. He tapped the screenwriter Mike Werb based on liking his script for a Curious George movie. (That movie would eventually come out in 2006, with Werb getting the "story by” credit.) Russell and Werb turned it into the bonkers comedy The Mask ended up being. Werb actually wrote his first draft in under six weeks, and the film was greenlit less than two months later.

The crux of The Mask is that Stanley Ipkiss is mild-mannered when he isn’t wearing the mask, to make his Tex Avery Wolf cartoon personality all the more of a juxtaposition. As such, it’s not surprising that Rick Moranis was in consideration when production began — as were Robin Williams and Martin Short.

Yes, 1994 was a huge year for Carrey, but bear in mind that films take time to hit the theaters. The Mask was casting before Carrey was a star. Still, he had support on the movie. New Line executive Mike DeLuca sent footage of Carrey performing on In Living Color to the production team of the movie. However, Russell was already a fan of Carrey, having even seen him perform standup live in Los Angeles before. While actors like Nicolas Cage and Matthew Broderick were still in the running, at this point, they began tweaking the script with Carrey in mind.

Russell wanted Carrey — and got him. For the female lead and love interest, Russell wanted Anna Nicole Smith. This time, he wasn’t so lucky. Smith had already signed on to costar in Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult. Then again, maybe Russell did get lucky.

With Smith out, a costumer director suggested another actress to Russell. This was Cameron Diaz. Diaz auditioned, got the part, and then got her first-ever movie role. Yes, playing the female lead in The Mask was Diaz’s film debut.

Tina was initially supposed to just seem nice but would actually be “bad” all along. Then, they cast Diaz in the role. At this point, they decided to rewrite the role to make Tina simply a genuinely good person, which changed the tone of the movie further.

As a model with no acting experience, producers wanted to be sure that Diaz was going to be able to handle the part. She ended up auditioning 12 times for the film, and she wasn’t officially given the role until a week before production. Diaz didn’t do it all, though, as her singing voice was dubbed.

The oversized teeth that are part of the mask were going to originally only be used in silent scenes and scenes where Stanley isn’t talking. However, Carrey learned to talk with the teeth in his mouth. This made him seem even more cartoonish, so they stuck with it.

Several of the characters in The Mask aren’t in the comics at all. That includes Stanley’s sidekick, his dog Milo. Milo was completely a creation of the filmmakers.

The producers were not fans of the Mask’s “Cuban Pete” number. They thought it was too long and that it slowed the movie down. Test audiences disagreed, as they proved to be big fans of it. Thus, it stayed in the movie and became one of the most memorable parts of the film.

When you picture the Mask, you think of the green face and the big yellow zoot suit, right? It is his iconic look. That being said, in the movie, he only wears the suit for a grand total of five minutes.

It’s not surprising that a kinetic performer like Carrey did some adlibbing on set. A lot of the time he had a partner in improvisation. That would be Max, a.k.a. the dog that plays Milo. For example, the scene where Milo won’t let go of the Frisbee was not in the script, and Carrey just went with it.

Out of Carrey’s three starring roles in 1994, The Mask proved the biggest suggest. The film made a whopping $351.6 million worldwide on a budget around $20 million. That made it the highest-grossing movie among Carrey’s outings that year, beating even Dumb and Dumber.

Carrey picked up a nomination for a Golden Globe (and also a Razzie nomination for Worst New Star), and the movie was also nominated for an Academy Award. The Mask was up for Best Visual Effect but lost to Forrest Gump.

The Mask is basically a living cartoon character, so it makes sense that it led to a cartoon. The Mask: Animated Series aired 54 episodes on CBS from 1995-97. Acclaimed voiceover actor Rob Paulsen played the role of Stanley. Interestingly, the final episode of The Mask: Animated Series featured an appearance by Ace Ventura, as there was also an Ace Ventura cartoon at that time.

After the success of The Mask, plans went into motion to get a sequel going. There was even a sweepstakes in Nintendo Power to win a cameo in the movie. Then, Carrey dropped out of the project, putting the kibosh on it (Nintendo Power ended up giving the winner of the contest a “cash equivalent” prize). Finally, in 2005, there was technically a sequel to the mask. Son of the Mask stars Jamie Kennedy, didn’t make back its budget in theaters, and has a six percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s considered one of the worst sequels ever made.