Await, Christmas motion picture preferences are ane of the most subjective (read: polarising) topics in the history of conversation, so while I simply can't be assed watching Love Actually, all the while obsessing over The Grinch, I fully understand that other people probs think I'one thousand a mad human being. So again, I did grow up watching The Grinch every year, so of course I'm a mad human. Look at the man I aspire to:

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And it's not just the character himself who'due south mad, it turns out Jim Carrey (one of my fave comedians) also went a lil mad on the set of the iconic 2000 moving-picture show.

I pitched this story in our recent Christmas features coming together, thinking that at least a few of my colleagues will have heard the wild yarn about Jim Carrey's Grinch costume, simply it turns out that not a lot of people know about this, so buckle upwardly, bbs. You're in for a wild one.

Apparently the big, hairy, green Grinch costume was an accented NIGHTMARE to attach to Jim Carrey'south body. The process involved facial prosthetics, being encased head-to-toe in greenish yak fur and enlarged contact lenses being inserted over his eyes.

Carrey in one case described the process as "being cached alive every mean solar day," saying it took eight and a one-half hours in full, although head brand-up artist Rick Baker has recalled it beingness more than like ii and a half hours. The fact that there's contention over how long it took gives you simply an indication of how bewildering the whole process was, plus its impact on the people involved.

Because the procedure was and so harrowing, Carrey became increasingly difficult to work with and, I hateful, you would. Makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji, who worked under Bakery, remembered in an interview with Vulture how "hateful" Carrey was to everybody.

"After two weeks we only could finish three days' worth of shooting schedule, because suddenly he would but disappear and when he came dorsum, everything was ripped apart. We couldn't shoot anything," he revealed.

On 1 particularly horrendous day, Carrey lost his shit at Tsuji.

"In the makeup trailer he only suddenly stands upward and looks in the mirror, and pointing on his mentum, he goes, 'This colour is different from what yous did yesterday.' I was using the same colour I used yesterday. He says, 'Fix it.' And okay, yous know, I 'fixed' it. Every day was like that," Tsuji recalled.

The makeup creative person became so mentally wearied that he ultimately had to take a break from the film to seek therapy.

"I went back under one status," Tsuji said. "I was talking with my friends, and they all told me, 'You should inquire for a enhance before you go back.' I didn't want to do that – kind of nasty. So I got the idea: How about I inquire them to help me to get a Greenish Card?" [Editor'due south note: a Dark-green Carte du jour is permanent residency in the United states]. Greenish bill of fare. Dark-green. Grinch greenish. Oh the irony.

With letters of recommendation from the filmmakers and BAFTA and Oscars wins for Best Brand-up under his belt, Tsuji'southward awarding was approved, although returning to production meant that he had to seek therapy over how unhappy he was at piece of work.

"If I had a choice, I would not be in this mental state all the time," he remembers thinking.

Meanwhile, Carrey was still going through his ain hell over the "horrifying" experience of becoming the Grinch. Then, 92 days in, producer Brian Grazer brought in a homo whose job information technology is to train CIA operatives on how to endure torture in lodge to assistance him deal with the hurting of the makeup chair.

Practise y'all understand how cooked this is? They literally hired a man who trains people to deal with TORTURE in case they're captured in battle to bargain with the pain of DRESSING Upwardly AS THE GRINCH.

In a recent appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Carrey revealed the advice he was given past the expert was this: "Eat everything you run into. If you're freaking out and you starting time to spiral downwards, turn the boob tube on, change a pattern, have someone you lot know come up and smack you in the head, punch yourself in the leg or smoke as much every bit yous mayhap can."

Fucking heavy, hey?

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