Jeff Daniels Saved 200 ‘Horrible’ Reviews Panning ‘Dumb & Dumber’ and ‘Wishing It Never Existed’ in a Scrapbook: ‘I Still Have’ It 31 Years Later

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jeff Daniels revealed in an interview with The Guardian that he saved 200 reviews that panned “Dumb & Dumber,” his 1994 buddy comedy with Jim Carrey about two dimwitted friends who drive cross-country to return a briefcase full of a money that was actually left as a ransom.

Critics were not kind to the movie, but it became a classic nonetheless with $247 million worldwide. “I have a theatre company in Michigan so I put on a preview,” Daniels said. “I was sat next to my parents and when we got to the toilet scene, my father hung his head in his hands and said: ‘No, Jeffrey …’ Meanwhile 5,000 people fell out of their chairs laughing.

The reviews were horrible though. I still have a scrapbook of 200 newspapers panning the movie and wishing it never existed.

Then we were the box office No 1 for six straight weeks. That’s when it hit me that we’d done the impossible.” Daniels was known as a dramatic actor at the time he was cast in “Dumb & Dumber,” which was an intentional choice as he wanted to flex his comedy chops. “But my agents didn’t want me to do the film,” he explained. “They said: ‘There’s a chance Jim Carrey will wipe you off the screen.’ I said: ‘Maybe – but not if I work with him.’ And that’s what I did.