Jim Carrey originally portrayed the Grinch in the 2000 feature How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The movie was commercially successful, and since then, there have been speculations about a potential sequel. In a new interview, Carrey expressed interest in reprising the role but put forth one condition that the project needed to meet.
Jim Carrey open to returning as the Grinch, but wants motion capture CGI
Carrey stated that he was open to returning as the Grinch in a potential How the Grinch Stole Christmas 2. However, he would only reprise the role if the titular character is created with motion capture CGI instead of practical effects and make-up, as it was for the first movie.
“Oh, gosh, you know, if we could figure out the Grinch,” the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 actor told ComicBook. “The thing about it is, 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.”
Carrey has spoken about his struggles with the heavy make-up he had to wear to play the Grinch in various other interviews. During one of his appearances on The Graham Norton Show, Carrey compared the experience with “being buried alive.” The make-up process for the Grinch apparently took over eight hours on the first day. Afterward, Carrey “put [his] leg through the wall” of his trailer. He told director Ron Howard that he could no longer do the movie. Eventually, someone associated with the production arranged for him to speak to a man who instructed CIA operatives on “how to endure torture.” “That’s how I got through the Grinch,” he added.
Notably, How the Grinch Stole Christmas is an adaptation of Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel’s Christmas children’s book of the same name. Geisel never penned a second How the Grinch Stole Christmas book, but the Grinch has appeared in other works he wrote. In 2023, author Alastair Heim and illustrator Aristides Ruiz published the legacy sequel How the Grinch Lost Christmas!
