Jim Carrey confirms he wants to play The Grinch again
Despite supposedly being retired, Jim Carrey has said that he would love to play The Grinch again. This comment comes after he announced his retirement a couple of years ago, which hasn’t really taken effect.
The cynical green humanoid was created by the children’s author Dr. Seuss, and is the main character of the 1957 book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Over the years, many notable figures have played the misanthropic creature, including Boris Karloff, Hans Conried, Bob Holt, Walter Matthau, Rik Mayall, and Benedict Cumberbatch. The latter starred as him in the 2018 animated adaptation, The Grinch.
Carrey’s portrayal in Ron Howard’s 2000 film, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, is the most iconic. Bringing a heavy dose of his surreal, outlandish comedy to the character, it was a perfect fit. Featuring darker humour and tone than previous adaptations, it became one of the favourite Christmas films of a generation.
The flick became a major commercial success, grossing $346 million globally. Furthermore, it was the highest-grossing film of the year in the US, making it the second-highest-grossing holiday film behind 1990’s Home Alone, until, The Grinch surpassed it in 2018. Carrey’s performance and the visual effects were also praised, and the movie won ‘Best Makeup and Hairstyling’ at the 2001 Oscars.
While Carrey has had many iconic roles over the years, it seems that The Grinch holds a special place in his heart. Speaking to ComicBook.com, he recently said that he’d love to play the grumbling Dr. Seuss character again, but on one condition. It would have to be shot using motion capture, as he does not want to endure the notoriously difficult makeup transformation again.
“Oh, gosh, you know, if we could figure out the Grinch,” Carrey explained. “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.”
The makeup process of transforming Carrey into The Grinch was so arduous that special effects makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji checked into therapy afterwards. He said working with the actor was extremely demanding.
Has Jim Carrey retired?
In 2022, Carrey announced his plans to retire from acting. He claimed that he intended to retire following the release of that year’s video game movie, Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Speaking to Access Hollywood, the actor stated, “Well, I’m retiring. Yeah, probably. I’m being fairly serious”.
“It depends, if the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink that says to me that it’s going to be really important for people to see, I might continue down the road but I’m taking a break,” Carrey continued.
“I really like my quiet life and I really like putting paint on canvas and I really love my spiritual life and I feel like, and this is something you might never hear another celebrity say as long as time exists – I have enough. I’ve done enough. I am enough,” he concluded.
It seems that Carrey isn’t fully retired. This year, he is returning to the screen for the third instalment in the franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog 3. He reprises his role as Dr. Ivo ‘Eggman’ Robotnik and the new character, Professor Gerald Robotnik. The film hits cinemas in the US on December 20th.
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