Summary

  • Jim Carrey's involvement legitimized the movie, which became a box office hit and a holiday favorite.
  • Audrey Geisel had strict stipulations for the film rights, including a share of profits and a well-known actor as the Grinch.
  • Carrey's method acting during his audition convinced Geisel that he could lose himself in characters, securing him the role as the Grinch.

From Jim Carrey's Grinch makeup time to everything that went into creating a live-action Whoville, the details of the making of How the Grinch Stole Christmas is a wild story on its own. A cherished Christmas movie for some and a crazy fever dream for others, 2000's How the Grinch Stole Christmas was an unexpected and ambitious project for Oscar-winning director Ron Howard to take on. The biggest draw for the project was, of course, Jim Carrey, who had been the king of comedy in the '90s. His involvement helped legitimize the idea and the movie went on to become a box office hit as well as a holiday favorite fans return to each year.

However, the success of the movie at the box office does not mean it was an easy endeavor as the behind-the-scenes tales of the making of How the Grinch Stole Christmas tell a tale of a chaotic Hollywood production. Though an iconic Carrey character, he has been open about the torturous Grinch makeup time that made for an uncomfortable shoot for the actor, there are also a lot of other details fans may never have known about How the Grinch Stole Christmas defied the odds and became a classic.

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The Grinch Made Taylor Momsen Want To Be A Musician

The Cindy Lou Who Actor Left Acting In 2012

One of Taylor Momsen’s earliest roles was as Cindy Lou Who in The Grinch. Though she was up for the role of Hannah Montana in the Disney Channel series (via Rolling Stone), it was Gossip Girl, where she played Jenny Humphrey, that made her a household name. She left that series to pursue her career in music full time, but she knew music was in her future long before that. Momsen recorded the song “Where Are You Christmas?” for The Grinch soundtrack, and the experience of being in a recording studio is what solidified the idea of working in music. She loved the experience so much that acting just became a means to an end.

Where To Watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Audrey Geisel Had A Lot Of Stipulations For The Film Rights

Dr. Seuss's Estate Also Had A Say In Who Plays The Grinch

The Grinch stealing a toy underneath a Christmas tree in How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Dr. Seuss, real name Theodor Geisel, had refused to sell the film rights for his books. Following his death in 1991, the decision went to his widow, Audrey Geisel, and she put a lot of thought into just what needed to happen if any producers wanted to make a movie from one of her husband’s stories.

She was willing to auction off the rights to How The Grinch Stole Christmas, but producers had to be willing to give her 4% of the box-office gross, half of the merchandising revenue, and 70% of the profit from book tie-ins. That was all on top of the $5 million price tag for the material itself. In addition to the monetary concerns, Giesel also stipulated that the actor playing the role of the Grinch had to have the same level of status as an actor like Robin Williams or Jim Carrey. Carrey obviously ended up getting the part.

Jim Carrey's Magic Hands Ruined A Take

Carrey Reacted In A Grinch-Like Manner

The Grinch on a sofa in his house

The "tablecloth scene" is a memorable one for Grinch fans. As he recounts his "busy" schedule, the Grinch recognizes a possible opening in his schedule and attempts to find an outfit to go out in. Deciding the tablecloth is an essential part of that outfit, he rips it clean off his table. However, according to Movie Mistakes, that wasn't exactly how the scene was supposed to go. Initially, Carrey was meant to make a total mess, spilling every dish onto the ground. To everyone's surprise, he was a little better at the rip than expected, and when no dish fell, he was directed to clear the table however he wanted. It is an impressive feat that also makes the scene more memorable.

Max Is Actually A Female Dog

Kelley The Dog Played The Grinch's Loyal Sidekick

Max stares at the Grinch in a santa costume

Max easily won many viewers' hearts because of his naturally cute appearance and ability to somehow play the straight man to Carrey's manic Grinch persona. Another little secret that shows off Max's range is that, according to Humane Hollywood, it's a female dog named Kelley Kelley was undoubtedly a major highlight of the Grinch. The little glances in response to some of Carrey's lines prove she was a star. When it's considered they almost chose to make the dog entirely CGI, it's easy to appreciate the practicality that came with just recruiting a very talented dog instead.

Eddie Murphy And Jack Nicholson Almost Played The Grinch

The Christmas Movie Sought A-List Talent As The Grinch

It's difficult to think that literally anyone else was considered for the Grinch role. After all, Jim Carrey took a rather understated character from a cartoon and turned him into something almost entirely his. Yet, when the studio was doing initial casting, Eddie Murphy and Jack Nicholson were the first names to come up, according to Vulture and ScreenCrush.

While it's unclear how far in the casting process these two ended up, it's understandable that they were considered. Both could've put their over-the-top performances into the role while mixing in their own quirks and creative choices. There's an interesting "what-if" concept for each, but in the end, the Jim Carrey Grinch performance was simply irreplaceable.

Method Acting In Jim Carrey's Audition

Carrey's Man On The Moon Role Spilled Over Into The Grinch

Jim Carey in front of a curtain in Man On The Moon

When casting for The Grinch was happening, Carrey was filming the infamous Man on the Moon. Carrey's Golden Globe winning performance was noted as being especially in-depth with Carrey's method acting which resulted in the documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond. As a result, Carrey remained in character as Andy Kaufman during the audition. In an interview, Carrey credited this move as he stated it was what convinced Audrey Geisel that he could lose himself in characters, proving he was the right man for the role.

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Jim Carrey Ad-libbed Many Of The Grinch's Lines

The Production Followed Carrey's Wild Ideas

Jim Carrey as the Grinch looking pensive in How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Jim Carrey is an actor known for his ability to improvise and Ron Howard wasn't shy about letting the actor shine, which led to some of the film's best lines. The lines Carrey delivers as the Grinch goes through his daily schedule were conjured up by him, according to TV Tropes, as was the table-clearing moment and so much more. Relying too heavily on improvising can let a movie, especially a comedy go off the tracks, but Howard clearly had faith in Carrey as well as an ability to keep focus on the story they were telling.

Tim Burton Almost Directed

Burton Had A Darker Vision In Mind

Tim Burton on set of Batman Returns.

When thinking of filmmakers who could bring Dr. Seuss' unique world to life, Tim Burton seems like a more obvious fit than Ron Howard. Indeed, Burton met with executives and discussed his vision for the movie, which was supposedly darker in tone and would've closely resembled the original cartoon. Ultimately, Burton had a scheduling conflict and wasn't available, according to Cosmopolitan. Although Burton's vision would have been interesting to see, Ron Howard's achievements with the film shouldn't go unappreciated. He's known as a reliable filmmaker who can guide a movie through troubled production, which helped this be one of Howard's highest-grossing films.

Whoville Was Almost Entirely CGI

A Hybrid Of Practical And Visual Effects Was Ultimately Used

During pre-production, the central location of Whoville was a big topic of discussion in terms of how to bring to life such a distinct looking place. According to AWN, what became a daunting task of recreating the wildly imaginative world of Whoville from the original books could've been far simpler with the removal of practical effects. The original plan was to film the movie almost entirely on green screen. Thankfully, they stuck with a hybrid of practicality and digital, resulting in a real-life Whoville.

The Grinch's Yellow Eyes Were Practical And Digital

Carrey's Discomfort Led To A Balance

The Grinch looks happy in How the Grinch Stole Christmas

While the Jim Carrey Grinch make-up team did an exceptional job disguising Jim Carrey behind prosthetics and make-up, it's the yellow contact lenses that really solidify the whole look. It renders him unrecognizable, allowing the viewer to enjoy his performance and forget about the A-list actor under the makeup. The price for this effectiveness was a great deal of discomfort for Carrey, according to The Washington Times, with the eyes being the primary point of pain. Carrey reached a breaking point multiple times, requiring the effects team to digitally paste them on in certain shots.

Dyed Yak Hair, Spandex, Yellow Contact Lenses Made Up The Costume

The Iconic Look Was An Involved Process

A shocked Grinch wears traditional garb in How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Bringing the Grinch suit to life would be a difficult prospect. Neither the original book nor cartoon gave much for the costume department to work with. According to GX104, ultimately, they decided that the live-action Grinch could be brought to life using only yak hair, a spandex suit underneath, and some creepy yellow contacts. The yak hair would be dyed green and individually woven into the spandex suit, which along with the contact lenses, began the unpleasant experience Carrey had when taking on this iconic role.

Tens Of Thousands Of Digital Trees Are In The Opening Shot

The Introduction Of Whoville Was A Complex Shot

The Grinch with Santa’s sleigh How the Grinch Stole Christmas

This is just another example of how hard the film's effects team worked. The opening shot of How the Grinch Stole Christmas sets the mood and establishes the major locations, as the camera sweeps over the land of Whoville. To fill up the entirety of this frame, the effects team provided tens of thousands of trees to help add some extra green to the shot. It's a great shot to start the film with. However, it is a reminder of the incredibly long hours of work that are needed to create such small moments in a movie.

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Jim Carrey Spent 92 Days Wearing The Grinch Costume

The Grinch Was In Full Costume In Almost Every Scene

Jim Carrey as The Grinch in Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

While the task of putting the outfit on and dealing with its extreme discomfort levels is worthy of its own discussion, the sheer amount of times Carrey had to don the full Grinch get-up is surprisingly high. Since there were no scenes with Carrey out of make-up, every scene he shot required the green makeover. That meant over the course of five months of principal photography, the actor had to wear the suit 92 days out of the total. Considering his comments on just how uncomfortable he was wearing the suit, it's easy to understand why the whole thing was such a grueling process for Carrey.

The Director Wore The Grinch Outfit For One Day Of Shooting

Ron Howard's Gesture Caused A Misunderstanding From Carrey

Baby Grinch uses fire in a festive costume

It's doubtful that Carrey's misery about putting on the Grinch suit so often was lost on anyone in production, least of all director Ron Howard. He recognized the troublesome nature of the process and decided Carrey should know of his appreciation. During one day of production, Howard arrived at work at 3:30 in the morning to endure the same Grinch makeup experience Carrey had gone through each day.

Eagerly awaiting Carrey's response, he actually got an angry reaction as Carrey thought Howard was a stunt double who "looked nothing like him." After getting the full explanation, Carrey acknowledged his appreciation of Howard's sentiment. Of course, Carrey and Howard weren't the only ones to sport the iconic Grinch costumes, as actor Josh Ryan Evans played the 8-year-old Grinch in a few scenes.

Over 152K Pounds Of Marble Were Crushed To Make Snow

The Unusual Method Created A Wintery Whoville

The Mayor and the Grinch at the holiday celebrations in How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Creating the Whoville set is a lot more than just building some fake houses and setting up some trees. They have to set the scene, fill the town with a sense of authenticity, and then cover all of it with a mountain's worth of snow. Since real snow couldn't really be used (since it would melt), the production team had to find a means of making it snow. Their solution was to use crushed marble as a substitute and ended up using 75 tons of it throughout production.

Over 250 Hand-Knitted Outfits Were Made For The Film

The Fast-Paced Work From The Costume Department Pulled Off The Memorable Looks

While each Who in Whoville largely has similar looks and facial designs, their individual outfits are impressively different from one another. This was achieved by Los Angeles-based sweater designer Suss Cousins, who along with two other knitters, made 250 original pieces of knitwear. Cousins and her team had to work quickly as well, needing to provide the sweaters after four months. They ended up pulling it off, making approximately 83 sweaters each - including 8 red sweaters for Jim Carrey. It's an incredible feat since they were all hand-knitted.

40 Minutes Of The Movie Is Just Visual Effects

The Movie's Blend Of Practical And CGI Created A Unique Look At Whoville

Mount Crumpit in How the Grinch Stole Christmas

How the Grinch Stole Christmas was obviously very effects-heavy in bringing certain otherwordly aspects of the story to life. For the final cut, the special effects team was responsible for filling up over forty minutes of the film's screen time. With a total of 104 minutes in its runtime, at least 40 of those are shots composed entirely through digital means. An intimidating task for any VFX artist, The Grinch's effects team helped to create shots of the Grinch's home on Mount Crumpit as well as his sleigh-ride adventures.

Anthony Hopkins Recorded His Narration In One Day

The Oscar Winner's Voice Set The Stage For The Story

Anthony Hopkins as Robert Ford in Westworld, looking scary and looking towards the camera

Though Jim Carrey was the A-lister on camera, Sir Anthony Hopkins was a perfect choice as the narrator. His calming voice provides a soothing means of exposition throughout the movie. That careful balance mixed with a considerable amount of lines may seem like it must've taken him a little while to record. In fact, Hopkins' time with The Grinch was incredibly short, taking the actor a day to complete. Despite the quick involvement, Hopkins brought so much to the movie and did justice by reciting some of Dr. Seuss' most famous lines.

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A Total Of 1000+ Hours Went Into Applying Make-up

The Hard Work Earned An Oscar

The Grinch and Cindy Lou face off in How The Grinch Stole Christmas

While the Grinch makeup was substantial itself, all the residents of Whoville needed prosthetics to bring their characters to life as well. Over 1000+ total hours was spent applying make-up and prosthetics to all the Whos in Whoville and the Grinch. Credited as being the movie with the most makeup used overall (taking the title away from The Wizard Of Oz), The Grinch would've completely failed had it not been for this committed team. The film's single Academy Award was won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, serving as a permanent reminder of their hard work.

Jim Carrey's On-Set Difficulties

Carrey's Tension With The Makeup Team Led To Production Difficulties

Jim Carrey on the verge of tears in The Truman Show

Carrey has spoken about the brutal process required for donning the painstaking Grinch constume each day and his unhappiness with the process was shared by other key members of the production. According to an interview with IndieWire with head makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji, Carrey didn't seem prepared for the intensity of the Grinch outfit. This led to Carrey having some outbursts that pushed Tsuji to leave temporarily. He then returned after Ron Howard requested it, with Carrey also promising to be more reasonable.

Production Halted Regularly Due To Carrey's Random Disappearances

He Just Couldn't Be Found

To add to the production struggles, Carrey had a bad tendency to disappear for multiple days at a time. These were completely random and never really explained, as Carrey would return and business would go on as planned. It appears that Carrey was going through some issues and these disappearances, while still unexplained, were a direct side effect of those struggles. The added pressure of enduring the makeup process liekly added to Carrey's difficulty dealing with this massive production.

The Cause Of Carrey's Behavior During Production

Carrey Battled Addiction While Filming

Cindy Lou and the Grinch face off

A major cause that led to Carrey's struggles during the making of The Grinch came from his addiction, as he admitted in an interview on the Graham Norton Show. He stated that this led to his priorities getting mixed up and that little else mattered outside of his "next batch." Thankfully, he discussed that he's now living day-to-day with a clear head and is enjoying life. It's sad to think of the much-beloved actor dealing with struggles like this and the fact that those struggles are impossible to see in his entertaining final performance.

The Grinch Outfit Took 8.5 Hours To Put On

The Process Was Eventually Reduced

The Grinch dresses up as santa in How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The first time that the makeup team put the suit on him, it took about eight and a half hours. This led to Carrey kicking a hole in his trailer and everything starting off poorly. Immediately after, they were able to cut down the time in half, making it take three hours to put on and one to take off. It was an improvement, but Carrey was far from at peace with the process. Though The Mask dealt with makeup and prosthetics, this went beyond anything Carrey dealt with before.

A CIA Expert Came To Help Carrey

Carrey Nearly Quit Production

The grinch hides in the Christmas tree in How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The struggles continued as Carrey just couldn't find any kind of happy place during the transformation process. He described it as "like being buried alive" and told Howard that he couldn't do the movie. This led to production bringing in a CIA expert who was able to teach Carrey ways to relax under duress. This worked well enough for him as there were far fewer issues during the makeup application process. Carrey credits the training for a good amount of his zen mentality and apparently still utilizes the teachings today.

The Head Makeup Artist Needed Therapy After The Movie

The Demands Of The Project Weighed Heavily On The Team

The Mayor holds onto the Grinch in his Xmas sweater

It turns out that working on this film wasn't the healthiest experience for everyone. While Carrey clearly had his own struggles, the head makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji was also affected by the difficult process. Forced to face Carrey when he was struggling was tough enough, but it didn't end there. He still had to maintain a consistent quality across a massive cast on a major project. Tsuji was able to handle it all and finish the film, but some therapy was needed to recover. While he's still gaining recognition for his work (earning a nomination for Darkest Hour), The Grinch is not a happy memory in his career.

Cinematographer Donald Peterman Was Replaced By His Son

A Previous Injury Ended Peterman's Career

Donald Peterman on the Star Trek set with Leonard Nimoy

Donald Peterman was a cinematographer with a long career, known best for his work on Star Trek IV and Flashdance. He was also a consistent collaborator with Ron Howard, having worked with him three times prior to The Grinch. Unfortunately, the 2000 film was the last collaboration between the two. After getting injured on the set of his previous film Mighty Joe Young, Peterman was in continuous pain and couldn't function properly. According to the American Society of Cinematographers Magazine, it eventually got to be too much and Peterman had his son take up the position. He never ended up working again, unfortunately ending the career of the illustrious cinematographer.

Jim Carrey Teasing Ron Howard Made It Into The Final Cut

The Improvised Scene Made For An Iconic Moment

A memorable snippet from the film came when the Grinch is preparing for the great Christmas heist and must train Max to pull the sleigh. To get Max into the right mindset, he behaves like a film director trying to influence an actor to fit the part. For the scene, which was not scripted, Carrey decided to use a nearby director (and that director's hat) as his influence. Carrey used Howard's famous on-set hat and ad-lib a moment of an over-the-top director. Thankfully, Ron Howard enjoyed the exchange so much, he left it in.

  • The Grinch Poster
    How The Grinch Stole Christmas
    Release Date:
    2000-11-17
    Cast:
    Jim Carrey, Taylor Momsen, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin, Molly Shannon
    Director:
    Ron Howard
    Genres:
    Family, Animation, Comedy, Holiday
    Rating:
    PG
    Runtime:
    104 Minutes
    Writers:
    Dr. Seuss, Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman
    Budget:
    $123 Million
    Studio(s):
    Imagine Entertainment
    Distributor(s):
    Universal Pictures
    Franchise(s):
    The Grinch