Jim Carrey recently joined Vulture for an oral history marking the 25th anniversary of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Ron Howard’s 2000 film adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s beloved 1957 children’s book. The movie became a massive box office hit, earning $346 million worldwide and claiming the title of highest-grossing domestic film of 2000. However, behind the holiday cheer was a production experience that can only be described as torturous for its star.
Carrey has been candid in previous interviews about how “excruciating” it was to play the Grinch under heavy makeup and prosthetics, but he revealed shocking new details to Vulture about just how brutal the process truly was—including the fact that a CIA torture expert was brought to set to prevent him from quitting.
The Studio Wanted to Just Paint Him Green
Rick Baker, the legendary makeup effects artist who won an Oscar for his work on How the Grinch Stole Christmas, revealed that Universal Studios initially offered a drastically simpler approach.
“The studio said, ‘We’re paying Jim $20 million, and we want to see him. Just paint him green,'” Baker explained. “But it’s not ‘How the Green Jim Carrey Stole Christmas.’ It’s ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas.’ He should look like a fantasy character.”
Baker took matters into his own hands to change the studio’s mind. “There was a popular movie website at the time, Ain’t It Cool News, and the guy who ran it was a fan of my work, and I contacted him,” Baker continued. “I said, ‘Listen, Universal wants to paint Jim Carrey green. I feel it’s a major mistake. I did a test on myself of what I think it should look like. Can you somehow say that you saw this test and that Universal is making a major mistake and they don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about?’ And he did. And it was outrageous responses from everybody. ‘What the hell is wrong with these people at Universal? I don’t want to see green Jim Carrey. I want to see a Grinch!’ Blah, blah, blah. So they finally caved in.”
Carrey’s Physical Ordeal
Carrey was equally adamant about undergoing a complete transformation, much to his own detriment. The physical reality of becoming the Grinch was nightmarish.
“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.”
The torture didn’t end there. “The suit was made of unnervingly itchy yak hair that drove me insane all day long. 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.”
Producer Brian Grazer revealed that the team offered Carrey digital special effects to turn his eyes green, but “he didn’t want to do that. He wanted to have green eyes. They were like Frisbees in his eyes. He was in so much pain.”
“It was something that I asked for that I can’t blame on anyone but myself,” Carrey admitted. “You’ve got to be careful what you ask for. You don’t think about it when you see an actor do a part that is about excruciating pain or whatever. But that actor has to live in that feeling. They don’t just go home and suddenly stop feeling it.”
Panic Attacks and the CIA Solution
Director Ron Howard revealed that Carrey “started having panic attacks” during the early days of filming because of how uncomfortable the transformation was on his body. “I would see him lying down on the floor in between setups with a brown paper bag. Literally on the floor. He was miserable.”
Carrey threatened to quit after his first day required eight hours in the makeup chair. Howard confirmed: “He was ready to give his $20 million back! I mean, he was sincere.”
The solution? Bringing in “a guy who trained the military on enduring imprisonment and torture” to prevent Carrey from abandoning the project.
“Richard Marcinko was a gentleman that trained CIA officers and special-ops people how to endure torture,” Carrey said. “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. 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.”
“Later on I found out that the gentleman that trained me to endure the Grinch also founded SEAL Team Six,” Carrey added.
The Bee Gees Saved Him
What ultimately helped Carrey endure the process—which was eventually reduced to about three hours—was an unlikely source of joy.
“What really helped me through the makeup process was the Bee Gees,” Carrey revealed. “I listened through the makeup process to the entire Bee Gees catalogue. Their music is so joyful. I’ve never met Barry Gibb, but I want to thank him.”
Would He Do It Again?
Carrey told ComicBook.com last year that he would consider playing the Grinch again, but only with modern technology. “If we could figure out the Grinch… the thing about it is, on the day, I do that with a ton of makeup and can hardly breathe. It was an extremely excruciating process. The children were in my mind all the time. ‘It’s for the kids. It’s for the kids. It’s for the kids.’ And now, with motion capture and things like that, I could be free to do other things. Anything is possible in this world.”
The ordeal was so intense that special effects makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji, who worked with Baker on applying Carrey’s makeup daily, checked into therapy after the production because the actor was so difficult in the makeup chair.
Twenty-five years later, How the Grinch Stole Christmas remains a holiday classic. But behind every frame of Carrey’s transformative performance was a level of physical and psychological endurance few actors have been asked to match.
