By:Dominic La-Viola
“The Grinch” was only a staple in modern film history for Christmas movies. It’s also a movie in which the lead almost walked off due to how tasking and demanding the film was.
Jim Carrey spoke out about having almost walked off the set of Ron Howard’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. Giving back his $ 20 million dollar upfront paycheck.
In order to stay on and continue making the film, they had to hire a torture specialist… Yes, apparently that’s a real thing.
Although it’s not what you might think. It wasn’t the character himself that made Carrey mad. It was the transformation into becoming the character. Literally, not metaphorically.
The studio apparently told the costume designers that they were paying Jim $ 20 million, and they wanted to see Jim just to paint him green.
Which, for Carrey’s sake, probably would have been a better alternative. The issue Carrey had was with the make-up.
Now I remember years ago when asked if he would ever do a squeal, he flat out said no because of how much of a pain the make-up was. He would be in a chair for hours every day to apply the make-up.
In this recent interview, he goes more in detail, talking about how he couldn’t breathe through his nose and was mouth breathing the entire movie.
Which, when you think about it. Everything combined, it does make sense why he has negative feelings about the production.
Although I remember not only seeing the movie in theaters when it first came out but also when it first came out on DVD.
The film was such a huge deal at the time, and I think it still is. Of course, there have been new adaptations since its release. Which are animated.
But nevertheless, this is still a classic Christmas movie, one that many watch every year . To which I couldn’t imagine if it didn’t get made, or worse. Someone else played the role of the Grinch.
Source -Total Film
Four Time Film School Dropout 
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