Jim Carrey has spoken about a terrifying ordeal in which he thought he had “10 minutes to live” after a missile alert was accidentally broadcast in Hawaii in 2018.
Appearing over webcam on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote his book Memoirs And Misinformation, Carrey revealed that the image used on the book cover was actually taken during those panic-stricken 10 minutes.
“The cover is actually my face after being told I have 10 minutes to live. It was completely real to us,” the 58-year-old said.
Carrey went on to explain that he had been in Hawaii with his daughter two years ago when his assistant called him crying to tell him about the missile believed to be headed toward the island and that they had “ten minutes left.”
“My brain started winding,” the Truman Show star told Fallon. He added that after he decided against driving to say goodbye to his loved ones because he “didn’t want to die” in his car, 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,” he said, 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.
“All I was planning to do was close my eyes and be thankful cause it’s been a good ride,” he revealed.
In 2018, Hawaii’s emergency alert system sent an island-wide a text that read: “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.”
As fear and chaos unfolded across the state, a second alert was sent 40 minutes later clarifying that the original warning was sent in error because an employee pressed the wrong button.
Whoops!
Check out Jim Carrey on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon:
