Jim Carrey Nearly Quit The Grinch — The Behind-The-Scenes Chaos That Almost Canceled A Christmas Classic

How the Grinch Stole Christmas was a box-office win and it still crushes every December. But behind the fuzzy green suit was a real mess: Jim Carrey almost walked off the movie despite a $20 million paycheck, because becoming the Grinch was, by his account and everyone around him, pure misery.

How close Carrey came to quitting

The suit was itchy, the makeup was suffocating, and the prosthetics were a daily endurance test. Day one in the chair ran eight hours. Not long after, Carrey hit a wall and reportedly told the studio he would give the money back. Not just the $20 million — he was willing to pay interest to get out.

"Jim started having panic attacks. I would see him lying down on the floor in between setups with a brown paper bag. Literally on the floor. He was miserable."

- Ron Howard

Carrey on the grind (and how he got through it)

"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. '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."

Translation: he loved the character and would even revisit it, but not with that much rubber glued to his face again. If modern performance-capture can do the heavy lifting, he is game.

The set got rough

The constant prosthetics and long days left Carrey so frayed that he regularly snapped at the team. It got bad enough that one makeup artist stepped away and sought therapy. Not exactly the cheery holiday vibe.

The wild fix production came up with

To keep their star from bolting, the production brought in a specialist who trains CIA personnel to endure imprisonment and torture. Yes, for a Christmas movie. The idea was to give Carrey tools to handle the claustrophobia and anxiety from the suit and makeup. It worked well enough to finish the film, and they eventually shaved the daily makeup time down from eight hours to about three.

• Day 1: makeup takes eight hours; the suit is itchy and overwhelming
• Carrey hits a breaking point and threatens to quit — even offers to return the $20 million with interest
• Ron Howard describes panic attacks and paper-bag breathing between setups
• Production brings in a trainer who preps people for imprisonment and torture to teach coping techniques
• Makeup routine drops to roughly three hours; Carrey powers through for the kids
• The movie becomes a holiday hit, and Carrey says he would consider doing it again with modern motion-capture

If you feel like revisiting the mayhem (on screen, not in the trailer), How the Grinch Stole Christmas is streaming on Prime Video in the U.S.