Here are 15 things you didn’t know about “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”:
1) The prosthetic make-up Jim Carrey wore, took about three hours to apply, and one hour to remove. In an interview, Carrey said he felt so confined and uncomfortable in the latex skin, that he sought counseling from a C.I.A. Agent, who taught him torture-resistance techniques.
2) Ron Howard was so thankful for Jim Carrey putting up with the uncomfortable hours to apply his make-up, he had the same make-up put on himself to make Carrey feel better. However, when Carrey first saw Howard in full Grinch outfit, he was angered, mistaking Ron for a stunt double who “looked nothing like him”.
3) Jim Carrey’s Grinch suit is covered in yak hair, which was dyed green, and sewn onto a spandex suit.
4) More than 1,000 man hours were used during shooting to apply makeup to the actors.
5) Actors and actresses went to Who-School with a choreographer, learning how to move and be comfortable being a Who.
6) Many Cirque du Soleil performers were used for the more acrobatic tricks and stunts in the movie. They can be spotted in the beginning as some of the Whos in the parade.
7) Suss Cousins, a Los Angeles-based sweater designer (whose first name is pronounced just like Dr. Seuss), along with two other knitters, produced two hundred fifty pieces of original knitwear for this movie (including eight identical red-striped sweaters for Jim Carrey) in four months. That works out to 83.3 sweaters per person in just one hundred twenty days, which is quite amazing, as all were hand knitted.
8) Max, the male dog, is played by Kelley, a female dog.
9) Eddie Murphy and Jack Nicholson were considered to play The Grinch.
10) 152,000 lbs. of crushed marble were used to create a wintery scene in Whoville.
11) Not since 1939’s The Wizard of Oz had so many characters in a film, including extras, worn such heavy stage makeup.
12) Sir Anthony Hopkins recorded all the narration for the movie in one day.
13) Jim Carrey’s yellow contact lenses were so uncomfortable that he couldn’t always wear them. Some shots of his eyes were colored in post-production.
14) Tim Burton was ALMOST the director but he had a scheduling conflict with another movie.
15) The Whoville set was built mostly on the backlot of Universal Studios behind the Bates Motel. During a break in filming, Jim Carrey surprised and scared tourists on the Universal Backlot Tour, by running out of the hotel wearing a dress and brandishing a knife.
