One of the all time great heavy metal cameos in movies was when Cannibal Corpse showed up in Jim Carey's breakthrough hit, Ace Ventura. It was a huge turning point for the band, who claim that not a day goes by where a fan tells them they discovered the death metal greats through the wacky comedy. Drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz was asked to recollect on this turning point in the band's career by Noisey recently and there are some interesting nuggets in the interview. Here are some highlights…

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They initially turned down the role but Jim Carey really wanted them to be in the movie:

I remember we turned it down at first because we had a European tour lined up during the time they wanted us down in Florida to shoot our scene. We’d had the tour lined up for months, and we’re not the kind of band that goes back on deals that we make, so we had to decline. But a few days went by and we got another call saying, “Jim Carrey really wants you guys. They’re gonna rearrange their schedule to accommodate you.” That just blew us away, because this is a major movie production, you know? I mean, Jim wanted us that bad. So of course we agreed to do it. We were just kids from Buffalo, so it was very exciting for us to be wanted in that way.

Despite previous reports to the contrary, Jim Carey was a big fan:

They took us over to the [actors’] trailers, and Jim comes over to us wearing his Ace Ventura garb, going, “Oh my god! Cannibal Corpse! It’s so great to have you guys here!” Then he starts rattling off lyrics and tells us he wants us to play “Hammer Smashed Face.” It was insane. [..] I remember he also rattled off the lyrics to “Rancid Amputation,” which was on our previous album. So he knew what was going on. It was so surreal—we were freaking out because we’re on a movie set meeting Jim Carrey, and he’s freaking out because he’s meeting Cannibal Corpse.

They were also almost in Airheads:

What’s funny is that we were offered another movie right after we’d shot our scenes for Ace Ventura, but before it was out. When they found out we’d already done Ace Ventura, they decided to go with another band. That movie was Airheads, which White Zombie ended up getting. Airheads is cool, but it’s not Ace Ventura. It didn’t do what Ace Ventura did.

Paul went on to say that the movie exposed them to an entirely new audience of young kids who never even heard death metal before. The whole interview is absolutely worth reading.