Is it a shock that an aging actor may or may not have gotten work done on their face? Apparently yes, based on how rumors and conspiracy theories swirled around Jim Carrey’s recent appearance at the César Awards in Paris, where he graced viewers with a noticeably plump and smooth visage.
Explanations for Carrey’s face ranged from the outrageous to the even more outrageous. Drag queen and makeup artist Alexis Stone made a post on Instagram implying he impersonated Carrey at the awards ceremony and uploaded a picture of a prosthetic mask (which some speculated to be AI-generated). What should’ve been an obvious joke seemed to activate something conspiratorial in the brains of other celebrities like Katy Perry and Megan Fox, with Perry commenting a bullseye emoji, and Fox commenting that “I can’t handle any more stress right now I need to know if this is real.”
If Stone actually did pull off such a stunt, he had his work cut out for him. Not only would Stone have needed to look like Carrey, he also would’ve needed to speak like him; at the ceremony, the presumably real Carrey gave a speech in French after winning the Honorary César Award, something he’d been practicing for months, his camp later said.
Of course, this wouldn’t be much of an obstacle if Carrey had simply been replaced by a clone, as some online sleuths speculated, many of them seemingly in earnest. Or if a French-speaking body double had taken his place. Later, Carrey’s personal representative confirmed to TMZ that the acclaimed actor had in fact appeared at the César Awards.
But what gives about Carrey’s face? Putting aside moral apprehensions on picking apart someone’s aging appearance, the answer is likely a pretty mundane one. Plastic surgeon Terry Dubrow of “Botched” fame told TMZ that it looked like Carrey had, in fact, gone under the cosmetic knife — and was dealing with an unfortunate but not uncommon side effect of plastic surgery: swelling.
So should we all feel bad for conspiracizing about Carrey’s face? Dubrow seems to think so, telling TMZ that folks were being mean to the 64-year-old actor. That’s probably true, along with the fact that the internet is driving all of us insane.
More on cosmetic surgery: Plastic Surgeons Are Using Material From Dead People on New Patients