{"id":234831,"date":"2025-12-16T00:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/234831\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T00:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:13:08","slug":"jim-carrey-offered-to-return-20-million-grinch-salary-quit-movie-amid-panic-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/234831\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Carrey offered to return $20 million ‘Grinch’ salary & quit movie amid ‘panic attacks’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Carrey joined Vulture<\/a> for an oral history to mark the 25th anniversary of \u201cHow the Grinch Stole Christmas,\u201d and shared some surprising revelations about the holiday classic. <\/p>\n

Ron Howard\u2019s 2000 film adaptation of Dr. Suess\u2019s 1957 children\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Carrey has recently been opening up about how \u201cexcruciating\u201d it was to play the Grinch with the intense makeup and prosthetics.<\/p>\n

Rick Baker, the make-up effects artist, who also won an Oscar for his work on \u201cHow the Grinch Stole Christmas,\u201d told the outlet that the studio originally wanted a much simpler look.<\/p>\n

“The studio said, \u2018We\u2019re paying Jim $20 million, and we want to see him. Just paint him green,’\u201d Baker said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not \u2018How the Green Jim Carrey Stole Christmas.\u2019 It\u2019s \u2018How the Grinch Stole Christmas.\u2019 He should look like a fantasy character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrey was also adamant he wanted to undergo a full transformation into his character, words he probably regrets now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen 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\u2019s nose,\u201d the comedian explained. \u201cSo, all of the rest of it was covered and I couldn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrey continued, \u201cThe suit was made of unnervingly itchy yak hair that drove me insane all day long. I had ten-inch-long fingers, so I couldn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Grazer, the film\u2019s producer, revealed to Vulture that the team had offered Carrey the option of using special effects to turn his eyes green, but the comedian \u201cdidn\u2019t want to do that. He wanted to have green eyes. They were like Frisbees in his eyes. He was in so much pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrey admits, \u201cIt was something that I asked for that I can\u2019t blame on anyone but myself. You\u2019ve got to be careful what you ask for. You don\u2019t 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\u2019t just go home and suddenly stop feeling it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Director Howard said Carrey \u201cstarted having panic attacks\u201d during the early days of filming because of how uncomfortable the transformation was on his body. He adds, \u201cI would see him lying down on the floor in between setups with a brown paper bag. Literally on the floor. He was miserable.\u201d<\/p>\n

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, \u201cHe was ready to give his $20 million back! I mean, he was sincere.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the solution happened, \u201ca guy who trained the military on enduring imprisonment and torture,\u201d was brought to the film\u2019s set to prevent Carrey from quitting and to teach him how to endure the hardship of his Grinch transformation.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichard Marcinko was a gentleman that trained CIA officers and special ops people how to endure torture,\u201d Carrey said. \u201cHe 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLater on I found out that the gentleman that trained me to endure the Grinch also founded SEAL Team Six,\u201d Carrey added. \u201cBut 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\u2019ve never met Barry Gibb, but I want to thank him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, gosh, you know, if we could figure out the Grinch,\u201d Carrey said at the time. \u201cThe 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. \u2018It\u2019s for the kids. It\u2019s for the kids. It\u2019s for the kids.\u2019 And now, with motion capture and things like that, I could be free to do other things. Anything is possible in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Carrey reunited with his “Grinch” costar<\/a>, Taylor Momsen, who he hadn’t seen since the film’s debut! <\/p>\n

The Grinch would have looked a lot different without Jim Carrey!!<\/p>\n

Follow us on Instagram at @tnndentertainment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Carrey joined Vulture for an oral history to mark the 25th anniversary of \u201cHow the Grinch Stole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[18,117,124803,19,17,85802,19934,114461,327,8622,15692,119818,21457],"class_list":{"0":"post-234831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-film-production","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-jim-carrey","14":"tag-makeup","15":"tag-motion-capture","16":"tag-movies","17":"tag-panic-attacks","18":"tag-ron-howard","19":"tag-the-grinch","20":"tag-transformation"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115726359133600666","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}