Jim Carrey Was Trained By A Navy Seal To Withstand The Make-Up Process On "Grinch"

Dan Lalonde
2 hours ago
2 min read

Jim Carrey How The Grinch Stole Christmas make-up

What is your favorite Christmas movie?

Jim Carrey is opening up with Vulture for 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas' 25th anniversary on the make-up process that left him wanting to quit and return his $20 million on the first day after a gruelling 8-hour session.

“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. 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.”

“Richard Marcinko was a gentleman that trained CIA officers and special-ops people how to endure torture. 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. Later on, I found out that the gentleman that trained me to endure the Grinch also founded SEAL Team Six."

Carrey has revealed he is now up for reprising the role using motion capture: “Oh, gosh, you know, if we could figure out the Grinch. The thing about it is, on the day, I do that with a ton of make-up 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.”

Kazuhiro Tsuji, the special effects makeup artist had to enter therapy after dealing with Carrey's behavior during the process: “In the makeup trailer he just suddenly stands up and looks in the mirror, and pointing on his chin, he goes, ‘This color is different from what you did yesterday, I was using the same color I used yesterday. He says, ‘Fix it.’ And okay, you know, I ‘fixed’ it. Every day was like that.”

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