1. Dumb & Dumber was the Farrelly Brothers first hit movie, but they struggled to get their script read by any studio executives. Theorising that it was because there was the word 'Dumb' in the title they came up with a fake name and sent it out again. After submitting the exact same script under the new name "A Power Tool Is Not A Toy" they started to get a lot of interest, with New Line Cinema ultimately snapping it up. As soon as they began filming the brothers reverted to their original, planned title.
2. Harry and Lloyd were so named in tribute to the silent movie star, Harold Lloyd.
3. Before either Jim Carrey or Jeff Daniels were approached to play the roles of Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, several other well known actors had turned down the parts. Amongst them were Martin Short, Steve Martin and bizarrely Gary Oldman, who all turned down the Lloyd role, and both Nicholas Cage and Rob Lowe passed on the part of Harry.
4. Dumb & Dumber went into production with a budget of $16million, and in the end almost half of that went to Jim Carrey! Originally Carrey was offered the role of Lloyd in 1993 with a paycheck of $700,000 attached, but after the release of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Carrey was hot property. Carrey's offer was first upped to $3.5million, but in the end his agent managed to negotiate him double that, and Carrey walked away with $7million in the bank.
5. That toothy grin is 100% Carrey. No false tooth or make-up needed as Jim Carrey had chipped his tooth years earlier. Usually he wears a permanent cap but had it removed for the film to make his character look more deranged.
6. Jeff Daniels ended up being offered the part of Harry thanks to a Pepto Bismol commercial he'd made about a decade earlier (the Farrelly brothers remembered it and thought he'd be a great fit), as he explained:
7. But just because the Farrelly's thought he'd be a good fit didn't mean everyone was on board. New Line Studio really didn't like the idea of Jeff Daniels in a comedy film, having only really been known for his dramatic work before. Bobby Farrelly explained:
"The studio didn’t want him," Bobby added. "They said, 'Please, anyone but him. Get a comedic actor.' So they offered him, if I recall, 50 grand, which was, you know, Jim’s getting seven mil, they offered him 50 figuring he’ll say, 'No, I’m not taking that,' but he took it."
8. When Lloyd pulls the Sea Bass scam at the diner, he says he once saw it on a movie. That was true - the movie referred to was Something Wild, a 1986 film where the character that pulled the exact same scam was played none other than Jeff Daniels himself.
9. Jim Carrey improvised so many lines that half the time the Farrelly's just left him to it. Amongst his on the spot improvisations were "No way... that's great. We've landed on the moon!", which Carrey made up after spotting the newspaper on the wall, and the whole of the "most annoying sound in the world" scene. Not knowing what Carrey was up to, that look on Daniel's face was one of genuine curiosity...
10. When released Dumb & Dumber shot straight to the top of the US box office, giving Jim Carrey the distinction of being the very first actor to have three movies go straight to number one in a single calendar year - the other films being The Mask and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
Dumb & Dumber To is released in UK cinemas on December 19th.
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