It’s a holiday classic: Jim Carrey in The Grinch.
But as entertaining as the 2000 film is for kids and adults alike, Carrey has described the experience as “excruciating.”
Of course, one look at Carrey’s costuming for the movie should explain exactly why. The intense makeup application — including very painful contact lenses and an itchy suit of green yak hair —took hours to complete and once on his face, made it difficult for Carrey to breathe. Preparation, filming and removal of the makeup resulted, often, in 16-hour days on set.
“The makeup was like being buried alive each day,” Carrey said on The Graham Norton Show in 2014.
The process was so insufferable that professional assistance was hired. Producer Brian Grazer brought in a CIA operative trained specifically in how to endure torture.
“He said: ‘Eat everything you see,'” Carrey recalled the advice he was given. “And if you’re freaking out and you start to spiral downward, turn the television on, change you pattern, have someone you know come up and smack you in the head, you know, punch yourself in the leg or smoke. Smoke as much as you possibly can.'”
But CIA techniques were not the only thing that got Carrey through the gig. The other was the catalog of the Bee Gees.
READ MORE: How Bee Gees Wrote ‘Saturday Night Fever’ in a Week
“The only thing that worked in the makeup chair to be calm through the process was everything the Bee Gees had ever done,” Carrey said. “I don’t know why. They just made me happy”
Looking back in 2024, Carrey noted that no matter how bad things got, he thought often of his audience: “The children were in my mind all the time. ‘It’s for the kids. It’s for the kids. It’s for the kids.'”
How Soundgarden Helped Jim Carrey Reunite With Taylor Momsen
In 2025, it was Soundgarden of all people that helped Carrey reunite with his Grinch costar Taylor Momsen, who played Cindy Lou Who in the film when she was seven years old.
At the November 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in Los Angeles, Carrey was on hand to induct Soundgarden, while Momsen was part of the musical tribute segment. It marked the first time they’d seen one another since filming The Grinch 25 years prior.
“As a young person watching an artist at work and taking their craft so seriously, that left a really powerful, lasting impact on me as an adult now,” Momsen said then.”And I’m excited to be able to tell him that as a grownup.”
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They started out at Beatles copies, transitioned to disco pioneers and never calmed their restless spirits.
Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
