Jim Carrey joined Vulture for an oral history to mark the 25th anniversary of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and shared some surprising revelations about the holiday classic.
Jim Carrey offered to return $20 million ‘Grinch’ salary & quit movie amid ‘panic attacks’
Ron Howard’s 2000 film adaptation of Dr. Suess’s 1957 children’s book was a box office hit, earning $346 million worldwide and it became the highest-grossing film of 2000 domestically, but it was a very torturous experience for Carrey.
FILE – In this Sept. 5, 2017, file photo, actor Jim Carrey poses for photographers at the premiere of the film ‘Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond’ at the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy. Carrey is being criticized on social media for a portrait he painted and tweeted Saturday, March 17, 2018, that is believed to be White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. (Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
Carrey has recently been opening up about how “excruciating” it was to play the Grinch with the intense makeup and prosthetics.
Rick Baker, the make-up effects artist, who also won an Oscar for his work on “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” told the outlet that the studio originally wanted a much simpler look.
FILE – In this Sept. 5, 2017 file photo, actor Jim Carrey poses for photographers during the photo call of the film “Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond – The Story of Jim Carrey & Andy Kaufman Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton,” at the 74th edition of the Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy. Carrey, said on Twitter on Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018, that he’s dumping his Facebook stock and deleting his page because the social media giant profited from Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election via spreading false news with Russian origins, and says they’re still not doing enough to stop it. The 56-year-old Carrey encouraged other investors and users to do the same. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)
“The studio said, ‘We’re paying Jim $20 million, and we want to see him. Just paint him green,’” Baker said. “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.”
Carrey was also adamant he wanted to undergo a full transformation into his character, words he probably regrets now.
“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,” the comedian 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.”
Carrey continued, “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.”
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 16: Jim Carrey attends the “Sonic The Hedgehog 3” Los Angeles premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre on December 16, 2024, in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
Brian Grazer, the film’s producer, revealed to Vulture that the team had offered Carrey the option of using special effects to turn his eyes green, but the comedian “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.”
Carrey admits, “It was something that I asked for that I can’t blame on anyone but myself. 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.”
Director Howard said Carrey “started having panic attacks” during the early days of filming because of how uncomfortable the transformation was on his body. He adds, “I would see him lying down on the floor in between setups with a brown paper bag. Literally on the floor. He was miserable.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 10: Jim Carrey attends the “Sonic The Hedgehog 3” UK Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square on December 10, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Antony Jones/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures)
But then on the first day of shooting, Carrey threatened to quit after he was required to be in the makeup chair for eight hours, with Howard revealing, “He was ready to give his $20 million back! I mean, he was sincere.”
That’s when the solution happened, “a guy who trained the military on enduring imprisonment and torture,” was brought to the film’s set to prevent Carrey from quitting and to teach him how to endure the hardship of his Grinch transformation.
“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.”
Jim Carrey, a cast member in the upcoming film “Sonic the Hedgehog,” dumps out a tub of popcorn during the Paramount Pictures presentation at CinemaCon 2019, the official convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) at Caesars Palace, Thursday, April 4, 2019, in Las Vegas. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
“Later on I found out that the gentleman that trained me to endure the Grinch also founded SEAL Team Six,” Carrey added. “But what really helped me through the makeup process, which they eventually pulled down to about three hours, was the Bee Gees. 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.”
Last year, Carrey told ComicBooks.com that he would be interested in playing the Grinch again, only if he was able to do it through motion picture technology and not make up.”
US/Canadian actor Jim Carrey attends a special screening of “Sonic the Hedgehog” at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, California, on February 12, 2020. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP) (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
“Oh, gosh, you know, if we could figure out the Grinch,” Carrey said at the time. “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.”
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 08: (L-R) Jim Carrey and Taylor Momsen pose in the press room during the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Peacock Theater on November 08, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for RRHOF)
Earlier this year, Carrey reunited with his “Grinch” costar, Taylor Momsen, who he hadn’t seen since the film’s debut!
The Grinch would have looked a lot different without Jim Carrey!!
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