The Grinch may be the greatest, greenest Christmas-hater in the history of holiday comedy, but he wasn’t a monster – at least, not when it came to child safety.
When Ron Howard released his live-action feature film adaptation of the classic Dr. Seuss tale How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 2000, he shaped how generations of children would interact with the holiday’s most lovable cynic, but, behind the scenes, star Jim Carrey was going through greater toil and turmoil than any cave-dwelling spoil-sport. Due to the intense makeup and prosthetic regimen required to transform Carrey into the titular character, Carrey nearly went crazy – well, crazier – and famously required training from a CIA torture specialist to withstand the eight-plus-hour “Grinchifying” process.
But despite how literally torturous the making of How the Grinch Stole Christmas was for its mega-star, Carrey’s over-sized heart came through with how he treated child star Taylor Momsen, who played Cindy Lou Who, and Momsen still remembers how tender the Grinch was when her physical safety was on the line. When speaking with Vulture for their oral history of the cult-classic Christmas comedy film, Momsen said that Carrey went above and beyond to be “protective” of her, and, when a sledding stunt went awry, he cut the take himself to make sure that she was okay.
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And they tried to convince us that he was as “cuddly as a cactus.”
“I never knew what Jim looked like, because I never saw him outside of the makeup until the premiere, and I was too young for his films,” said Momsen, who was just six years old during filming for How the Grinch Stole Christmas. “So to me he was just Jim who looked like the Grinch.”
Momsen continued of Carrey, whom she apparantly believed really was a not-so-jolly green giant, “He was incredibly protective. That’s what I remember. Jim was very, very protective of me on set as a person, as a kid, always looking out for me, checking in, making sure I was okay, because he was very animated, very over the top.”
“I remember when we were shooting the scene coming down the mountain on the sled,” Momsen began of Carrey’s shining moment as a fuzzy green protector, “It was this real sled that was up on a giant spring that was being controlled and moving from side to side, very aggressively. Jim is leaning over and being extravagant Jim. There was a moment where I almost fell out of the sled, and he freaked out. He called cut and started checking in on me.”
Said Momsen, “I was having a great time. I was laughing; I wasn’t thinking about the fact that I just almost fell very high off the ground.”
“I always felt really safe with Jim,” Momsen reflected of her relationship with the film superstar whom she believed was an actual, fur-covered, pot-bellied, solid green comedy creature. “I liked being around him. At such a young age, to watch an artist who is that serious at what they’re doing even while playing this very over-the-top character, it was clear to me how much he was putting into it and how much of an artist he was.”
And, on top of that, rumor has it that Carrey was such a good caretaker that he even used his cooking skills to treat the entire How the Grinch Stole Christmas cast – I hear his roast beast was delicious.
