Jim Carrey offered to return his $20 million Grinch salary and was going to quit the movie amid “panic attacks” over the makeup. Then “a guy who trained the military on enduring torture” was hired to help him.
“Richard Marcinko was a gentleman that trained CIA officers and… pic.twitter.com/AgDaHi2O7L
— Variety (@Variety) December 12, 2025
Vulture has an oral history of the making of the live-action Grinch starring Jim Carrey.
One revelation was that the studio initially just wanted to paint Jim Carrey green. Makeup designer Rick Baker was against this and leaked it to Ain’t It Cool News and the backlash caused the studio to change their mind.
Jim Carrey’s makeup and costume required eight hours of set up and he was miserable inside it; “The suit was made of unnervingly itchy yak hair that drove me insane all day long. I had ten-inch-long fingers, so I couldn’t scratch myself or touch my face or do anything. I had teeth that I had to find a way to speak around, and I had full contact lenses that covered the entire eyeball, and I could only see a tiny tunnel in front of me.” Director Ron Howard said Carrey suffered from panic attacks on set.
Jim Carrey eventually asked to quit the role and return the money he had been paid. To prevent him from quitting of “a guy who trained the military on enduring imprisonment and torture“ was brought on set to help.
“Richard Marcinko was a gentleman that trained CIA officers and special-ops people how to endure torture,” Carrey said. “He gave me a litany of things that I could do when I began to spiral. Like punch myself in the leg as hard as I can. Have a friend that I trust and punch him in the arm. Eat everything in sight. Changing patterns in the room. If there’s a TV on when you start to spiral, turn it off and turn the radio on. Smoke cigarettes as much as possible. There are pictures of me as the Grinch sitting in a director’s chair with a long cigarette holder. I had to have the holder, because the yak hair would catch on fire if it got too close.”
“Later on I found out that the gentleman that trained me to endure the Grinch also founded SEAL Team Six,” Carrey added.