Jim Carrey says he’d be up for a return as the Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas 2, but one major change would have to happen. The actor/comedian portrayed the Dr. Seuss character in the Ron Howard-directed 2000 film, wearing a full-body prosthetic green suit and makeup. As you can imagine, the time and effort Carrey put into sliding on the Grinch suit every day for long hours was exhausting. Technology and costume design has improved greatly since How the Grinch Stole Christmas was released, meaning it wouldn’t be such a labor of love for Carrey. So is there a chance Carrey would do it all again? We asked him to find out.
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ComicBook spoke to Jim Carrey ahead of the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, where he was asked if there was one character that he would love an opportunity to play again, who would it be. “Oh, gosh, you know, if we could figure out the Grinch,” Carrey said. “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.”
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The Dr. Seuss Estate had strict guidelines for any studios looking to adapt the works of the late Dr. Seuss. For example, his widow, Audrey Geisel, set a price tag of $5 million for the film rights to The Grinch. In addition to the base price for the rights to The Grinch, Geisel also required the studio to give the Seuss estate a cut of 4% of the movie’s total box-office revenue, along with 50% of merchandising revenue and 70% from book tie-ins to the movie. Audrey Geisel also had final approval over the director and writer, with another demand that whoever was chosen have earned at least $1 million from a previous film project. This most likely was to ensure that whoever helmed The Grinch be an experienced filmmaker.
When it came down to the requirements to play The Grinch, Geisel’s letter outlining the Seuss estate’s requirements for the movie stated the actor cast in the role had to be of a very particular height and frame, with Jack Nicholson, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, and Dustin Hoffman name-dropped as templates. Jim Carrey was eventually chosen to portray “The Mean One.”
You can see Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which opens in theaters on December 20th.