Jim Carrey recounts the terrifying time he only had ‘10 minutes to live’
Canadian-American actor and comedian Jim Carrey is well-known for his energetic slapstick performances and irreplaceable roles in movies that continue to grip generations. The star has also been open about his battle with depression behind the scenes and, more recently, recounted the terrifying time when he was told that he only had “ten minutes to live.”
Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the comedian and now New York Times best-selling author shared that the cover of his new book represented his face while he was grappling with the concept of impending doom.
Carrey went on to reveal that he was in Hawaii with his daughter while writing his autobiographical novel Memoirs and Misinformation when his assistant called him in tears to tell him that they had “ten minutes left” and the “missiles are coming.” The actor was referring to the time in 2018 when chaos ensued after the state of Hawaii’s emergency alert system sent a mass text that read: “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”
“My brain started winding,” Carrey admitted. Unable to get off the island with his daughter, he recalled thinking, “I don’t want to die in my car.” He then said he had a moment where he just “looked out at the ocean” and pondered what he could do with “the last moment of my time.”
“I just decided to go over a list of gratitudes… I could not stop thinking about wonderful things that have happened to me and blessings that I’ve had,” Carrey continued, adding that “it was lovely” and he finally “got to a point of grace with two minutes to spare,” when he learned the missile was a false alarm.
After a whopping 40 minutes of the first text terrifying the citizens of Hawaii, a second message was broadcast clarifying that the original warning was sent in error because an employee merely “pressed the wrong button.”
“All I was planning to do was close my eyes and be thankful because it’s been a good ride,” Carrey admitted. I’d have probably done the same, Mr. Carrey—after uploading a series of ‘last sunset in Hawaii’ images onto Reddit’s r/collapse and r/natureisbeautiful, that is.
