Jim Carrey, the Original Focker

Certain actors inhabit a role, and it doesn’t even seem possible that anyone else could have played that part.

What would Ace Ventura have been without Jim Carrey talking with his butt cheeks?

But Jim feels the same way about Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents, despite the fact it was a part Carrey created.

“Meet the Parents was something that I was developing with Steven Spielberg,” Carrey revealed to CNN’s Larry King. “Yes, I actually created the Fockers in a creative meeting. But, it was perfect that Ben Stiller did it. When I saw it, I went ‘That’s the way it’s supposed to be done.’”

Both Spielberg and Carrey—who would have played Gaylord Focker in the highly successful 2000 film which sparked the sequel, Meet the Fockers— had to drop out over scheduling conflicts.

The two films grossed almost $730 million dollars, and Ben Stiller is reportedly working on a third installment to the series.

And it’s all because of Jim Carrey.