Jim Carrey has always been candid about how difficult the process of making How The Grinch Stole Christmas was due to the large amount of makeup required to pull off his iconic role. But in a new oral history for Vulture about the classic 2000 film, the legendary actor and former staff from the movie have provided shocking details about the process it took to turn Carrey into the Grinch.
“When it came down to actually designing the Grinch to look like the Grinch, they had to put the tip of my nose on the top of the bridge of the Grinch’s nose,” Carrey explained. “So, all of the rest of it was covered and I couldn’t breathe through my nose, and they had a real problem trying to get holes in the mask that could allow me to breathe through my nose. Ultimately, I ended up mouth-breathing through the entire movie.”
It wasn’t just the breathing that bothered Carrey so much.
“The suit was made of unnervingly itchy yak hair that drove me insane all day long,” he explained. “I had ten-inch-long fingers, so I couldn’t scratch myself or touch my face or do anything. I had teeth that I had to find a way to speak around, and I had full contact lenses that covered the entire eyeball, and I could only see a tiny tunnel in front of me.”
Though Carrey was miserable about a lot of aspects of the movie, the film’s producer Brian Grazer revealed that the actor wanted to do things realistically, such as turning his eyes green.
“He wanted to have green eyes,” said Grazer. “They were like Frisbees in his eyes. He was in so much pain.”
Director Ron Howard revealed that the transformation was so taxing on Carrey that the actor “started having panic attacks” during the first days of filming. “I would see him lying down on the floor in between setups with a brown paper bag,” said Howard. “Literally on the floor. He was miserable.”
“He was ready to give his $20 million back! I mean, he was sincere,” added Howard about Carrey threatening to quit after his first day, due to his required eight hours of makeup to be ready.
What ultimately helped Carrey persevere through the role was the help from Richard Marcinko, a “guy who trained the military on enduring imprisonment and torture,” who passed away in 2021.
“He gave me a litany of things that I could do when I began to spiral. Like punch myself in the leg as hard as I can,” said Carrey. “Have a friend that I trust and punch him in the arm. Eat everything in sight. Changing patterns in the room. If there’s a TV on when you start to spiral, turn it off and turn the radio on. Smoke cigarettes as much as possible. There are pictures of me as the Grinch sitting in a director’s chair with a long cigarette holder. I had to have the holder, because the yak hair would catch on fire if it got too close.”
Though Carrey hated being the Grinch, he said last year that he’d be up to return for a sequel if he could use motion capture.
