10 interesting facts about the film "The Cable Guy" (13 photos + 1 video)

On June 10, 1996, the film “The Cable Guy” was released worldwide, Ben Stiller’s second directorial work, starring Matthew Broderick and Jim Carrey. I suggest you find out some interesting facts about the film.





The film "The Cable Guy", released in 1996, can be classified as a comedy with thriller elements. Moreover, actor Jim Carrey, who played the role of a crazy cable guy looking for a friend, was largely responsible for both the comedy and thriller parts. Here are some interesting facts about this painting.



1. The director of the film was Ben Stiller, who nevertheless became more famous as an actor. By the way, in the film “The Cable Guy” he played a small role as Sam Sweet. True, initially, he himself wanted to play the cable guy Chip Douglas, but in the end he decided to abandon this idea, because he was afraid that he would not be able to combine directing and acting work, causing harm both here and there.





Ben Stiller filmed some of the scenes in two versions - a black comedy or a regular funny comedy. And only then they sat down with Jim Carrey to watch it and chose the most successful option.



By the way, Ben Stiller turned out to be a good guy, because he recruited his sister Amy Stiller to play the role of the main character’s secretary.



2. The script for the film was written by Lou Holtz Jr., and for his work he received a very impressive fee - $1 million. True, when Jim Carrey read the script, he found it a little rustic. The original version of the script was similar to a regular comedy. Then producer Judd Apatow, at the request of Jim Carrey, edited the script in such a way as to make the film a black comedy with hints of a thriller. As a result, the script simply underwent a gigantic revision and was already very different from the original.

True, Apatow himself, despite the fact that he reworked the script, is not listed in the credits. More precisely, he was listed, but only as a producer, and not as a screenwriter. The reason for this was the ban of the Screenwriters Guild. And no matter how much Kerry fought for Apatow’s name to be in the credits, this never happened.

3. Jim Carrey loved to improvise, and the film “The Cable Guy” was no exception. For example, the very scene where Carrey leans his naked chest against the prison window was invented by Jim Carrey himself, and it was not in the script.



4. Jim Carrey doesn’t know how to play basketball, and he basically can’t handle the ball, so to shoot the basketball scene we had to use editing and special effects. Jim Carrey simply hit the air, and the ball was added at the editing stage.



5. The cable guy's name is Chip Douglas. He took this name for himself in honor of one of the heroes of the series “My Three Sons”. And at the very beginning of the film “The Cable Guy” we can see footage from this series.



6. With a budget of $47 million, The Cable Guy earned $102 million at the worldwide box office.



But in general, American viewers and critics did not highly appreciate this film at the time of its release. Only over time they were able to appreciate this picture, and even in their homeland it became a hit.

7. By the way, almost half of the budget was eaten up by Jim Carrey’s fee. 20 out of 47 million went to Jim Carrey personally. At that time it was the largest acting fee. By comparison, leading man Matthew Broderick received only $2 million.



A funny fact also occurred during negotiations regarding fees. Jim Carrey was a joker in real life, so he asked his managers to dress up in Ace Ventura costumes for negotiations.

8. Director Ben Stiller was a Star Trek fan, so he jumped at the opportunity to make a reference to his favorite film. In the scene in "The Middle Ages" we can see some rather strange weapons. So, this is Lyrpa - the traditional weapon of the Vulcans.



9. During a basketball game, shards of glass flew in the wrong direction due to the fact that the pyrotechnics did not work correctly. Because of this, Jim Carrey's stunt double was injured, and these fragments actually landed on him. As a result, the pyrotechnician was fired.



10. In 2022, the "Superball LVI" (National League Decisive Soccer Match) ad came out, which parodied a scene from The Cable Guy. The cable guy, whose family Jim Carrey returned to, comes to a client to install a television cable, but she refuses because she has Verision 5G.



The video is only one minute long, but the cost of it was around $13 million. It is clear who received most of the budget.