Anna Nicole Smith ‘never got over’ turning down a role in The Mask with Jim Carrey

Everyone who’s watched the Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me documentary on Netflix has been asking the same things about the iconic 90s model: 1) where’s her daughter now? and 2) wait, she was almost in The Mask with Jim Carrey?

Yup, during one scene in the doc, Anna is on the phone to her management explaining she’s got two role offers, but the movies are shooting at the same time. Calling Jim Carrey “that funny guy”,  she admits she’s “embarrassed” to have only been offered $50,000 to star alongside him. So, here’s what happened next:

Why did Anna Nicole Smith turn down a role in The Mask?

Credit: Netflix

Anna Nicole Smith turned down the starring role she was offered in The Mask because her agent advised her to reject it after the low pay ($50,000) she’s been offered to take on the part. The film became a massive box office success, grossing over $350 million worldwide, becoming the second-highest earning superhero movie at that time, and propelling (then unknown) Cameron Diaz to stardom.

“She never got over it,” her friend and film producer Ashley Wells Lewis revealed of Anna’s reaction to the film’s success. “I think it could’ve set her off the right path. It certainly didn’t hurt Cameron Diaz.”

Credit: Netflix

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The director of The Mask, Chuck Russell claimed to Variety in 2019 that talks with Anna had never really gone that far. “We met,” he said. “Anna was charming and bubbly, but did not have other qualities needed for the role. I never took the next step to run scenes with her.”

But this statement has been massively argued against by Anna’s friends and, obviously, in the Netflix documentary, you can see Anna speaking about salary expectations with her agent, which is unlikely to have even been put on the table if they didn’t at one point want her for the role.

Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

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Featured image credit via Shutterstock and New Line Cinema.