How The Grinch Stole Christmas is a Christmas classic and a favorite for many, however, Jim Carrey may not be able to say the same. The prosthetics and makeup on the character were so good, that some may even fail to recognize it was him underneath. Of course, it wasn’t a quick job, and it was so bad, that the star had to undergo ‘torture training’.
The fan-favorite Christmas movie is the Hollywood star’s third highest-grossing of all time, raking in a whopping $345 million. It falls closely behind 1994’s The Mask, which made $352 million. His highest-grossing was Bruce Almighty in 2003, with $485 million.
Jim Carrey sat in make-up for eight and a half hours to look like The Grinch
Luckily the blockbuster made so much money, as the Hollywood star revealed he sat in make-up for eight and a half hours on the first day of filming on The Graham Norton Show. He compared it to “being buried alive every day”.
“I went back to my trailer and put my leg through the wall, and told Ron Howard I couldn’t do the movie,” he said. “Then Brian Grazer came in, being the fix-it man, and came up with a brilliant idea.”
The idea may sound like a crazy one, but, seemed to work. He suggested hiring someone who teaches CIA operatives how to endure torture.
It looks like Jim can laugh about the torture now though, as he called it “hilarious”.
If you’re wondering what the CIA-trained individual said, he suggested: “Eat everything you see and if you’re freaking out and you start to spiral downward turn the television on, change your pattern.
“Have someone you know come and smack you in the head, punch yourself in the leg or smoke, smoke as much as you possibly can.”
When asked how many times he had to go through it, The Mask star said he wore the make-up a total of 100 times. If he was in there for around eight hours, that’s 800 hours, 33 days, to be precise.
He gives a special thanks to the Bee Gees, who also got him through it. We’ll be watching the film in a different light now!
Fans say he should have got an Oscar for ‘improvised’ scene
As if his dedication wasn’t good enough, fans are now calling for the actor to win an Oscar Award for one specific scene, which was made up on the spot.
Fans will remember the iconic scene where the green man receives a last-minute invite from the People of Whoville for their ‘Holiday Cheermeister’. However, relatably, he has nothing to wear, and his schedule is pretty full up.
The line, which has now turned into a global meme, goes along the lines:
“One o’clock, wallow in self-pity. Four thirty, stare into the abyss. Five o’clock, solve world hunger – tell no one. Five thirty, Jazz-ercise. Six thirty, dinner with me. I can’t cancel that again! Seven o’clock, wrestle with my self-loathing… I’m booked!”
The Grinch then heads to the table cloth, which Carrey rips clean off without disturbing all the contents on them.
However, that’s not how the scene was meant to go. The 61-year-old tablecloth master was actually meant to send everything flying while dragging the cloth to make a DIY dress.
But a pro like Carrey improved on the spot, running back to throw the contents on the ground, even flipping the table for some extra spice.
To this day, it’s still one of the most iconic scenes to exist.
Brb, just loading up Netflix.
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