Jim Carrey – Information

A crane was blown over by strong winds during shooting. It was reported at the time that Jennifer Aniston, who was standing with her back to the crane, didn’t see it toppling towards her but Jim Carrey pushed her out of the way in time to avert a serious accident. Jim Carrey subsequently played down the extent of the peril, and said that the stories were exaggerated. Jennifer Aniston has since denied that she was even there. 

This film contains many references to previous Jim Carrey films such as: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) (the monkey, the lines “Alrighty then”, “Sissy girl” and saying “Hi-ho silver, away!” as he takes off in a car), The Mask (1994) (the phone number, an important object being thrown out the window but magically reappearing, “Dirty Harry” impersonation, and talking to himself in the mirror)

Instead of a phone number with the unused 555 prefix, a phone number that appears on the pager carried by Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) was an actual phone number in many US area codes, causing owners of that phone number to be bombarded with calls. For the video release this number was changed to 555-0123.

Jim Carrey often insisted on doing upwards of 30 takes of some scenes.

The town square is the same location that was in Back to the Future (1985) and Back to the Future Part II (1989).

Eva Mendes was originally cast as Susan Ortega but had to be replaced due to scheduling conflicts

The picture on the “Mr Exclusive” poster is taken from a promo shot from Liar Liar (1997).

The supercar driven by Bruce Nolan later in the film is a Saleen S7, this car is often confused with the Mclaren F1.

This film has been officially banned in Egypt for “sacrilegious content”.

The school scenes were filmed at the same school used in Liar Liar (1997)

At one point, Jennifer Aniston was shooting this movie, “F·r·i·e·n·d·s” (1994), and Along Came Polly (2004) at the same time.

When Bruce looks at Grace’s prayers some of them can be seen on screen in two shots – all of her prayers and filtered to include only Bruce’s. In the first shot, only one of the 21 visible prayers are close to being for Grace’s own benefit: “Please Help The Day Care Kids Listen Better”. The visible prayers in the first shot are: – Please Watch Over My Sister – Please Help Day Care Center – Please Keep Debbie’s Kids Safe – Please Give My Day Care Parents Wisdom – Please Be With Mom During This Time – Please Keep Our Country Safe – Please Help Bruce To Be Happy – Please Watch Over My Day Care Kids – Please Guide Our President’s Decisions – Please Give Debbie The Energy She Needs – Please Help Mom Stay Healthy – Please Help Blood Drive Reach Their Goal – Please Help Bruce Make Good Decisions – Please Help The Day Care Kids Listen Better – Please Help Debbie Be Happy – Please Help My Relationship With Bruce – Please Watch Over Mom – Please Help Debbie And Bruce Get Along – Please Watch Over Martin From Day Care – Please Help Mom Be Happy – Please Help Bruce To Have Confidence

Among the many religious and Biblical allusions in the film are the following: – When exiting God’s “office”, Bruce walks right over the puddle that drenched his leg on the way in. – At the diner, while parting his tomato soup a la the Red Sea, the background music is the theme from The Ten Commandments (1956). – His prayer e-mail service is called “Yahweh.com”, a reference to God’s Biblical name. – At the party celebrating the anchor position, Bruce turns water into wine and poses next to a statue of a golden calf. – When Bruce is about to get his job back, he tells Jack that he (Bruce) needed some time to reassess his goals and find his true self. Jack astonished asks him, “You did that in a day?” Then Bruce says, “Imagine what I would do in seven!”. Obviously, that is the reference to Genesis.

One of the many deleted scenes on the DVD (there are ca. 30 minutes on it) has Grace with her sister in a grocery store. Grace picks up a tabloid and remarks about the fictitious actress on the cover, “She’s so talented but all they want to talk about is her hair,” an obvious reference to herself in real life.

The name of the weather man (Dallas Coleman) and the name of the sportscaster (Fred Donohue) are both combinations of famous Los Angeles area newscasters. Famous LA weather men Dallas Raines and Fritz Coleman make up the weather man’s name, and LA sportscasters Fred Roggin and Todd Donoho make up the sportscaster.

After he is bestowed with God’s powers, the license plate of Bruce’s car reads “ALMITY-1?.

The movie is set in Buffalo, New York because Jim Carrey grew up in Toronto just north of Buffalo and watched WKBW-TV Channel 7 Eyewitness News as a kid. In those days, Eyewitness News was anchored by Irv Weinstein who was famous for his staccato delivery and use of alliterative phrases like “Pistol Packing Punks” and “Buffalo Blaze Busters”. Irv Weinstein was the first news anchor to use the Phrase “It’s 11 o’clock, do you know where your children are?”

When Jim Carrey turns on the TV in the beginning of Bruce Almighty (2003) the man who appears on the screen is John Murphy, the real-life sports director for WKBW-TV in Buffalo.

The phone number used by Bruce to organize the calls from the believers shown in the movie happened to be used by a radio station in Colorado and a woman in Florida. After the movie released both were deluged with calls wanting to talk with God. The calls instantly stopped after the producers bought the two numbers that were causing the problems. (See also Ghajini (2008))