Jim Carrey Offered to Return $20 Million ‘Grinch’ Payday and Quit the Movie Amid ‘Panic Attacks’ Over Makeup; A Man ‘Who Trained the Military on Enduring Torture’ Was Hired to Help

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/jim-carrey-quit-grinch-makeup-torture-expert-1236607568/

344 points · 57 comments · view on lemmy.world

57 Comments

hopesdead@startrek.website · 104 pts · 241d (41 replies)

Acting in makeup does not seem as easy as one’s ability to act without makeup. There have been stories of people on Star Trek for example, whom had terrible experiences. Some wanted to quit, others had bad skin reactions.

TachyonTele@piefed.social · 119 pts · 241d (4 replies)

It takes hours and hours to put it on, and take it off. And then theres 10 hours of acting in between.

I would have panic attacks too

vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 33 pts · 241d (2 replies)

As an aside. The guy who played Pinhead was in so many things as Pinhead he learned how to do the makeup himself.

DancingBear@midwest.social · 8 pts · 240d
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TachyonTele@piefed.social · 7 pts · 240d

That's pretty neat

Kevlar21@piefed.social · 2 pts · 203d

Yeah and after all that you only get $20 million

Iheartcheese@lemmy.world · 60 pts · 241d (22 replies)

Jennifer Lawrence gets a lot of shit for not being blue much after the first movie she was in but she also had a really bad reaction to the makeup

captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 29 pts · 240d

That's why they killed off Z'an on Farscape, the blue makeup was apparently harming Virginia Hey's kidneys so she had to quit the role.

SendMePhotos@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 241d (19 replies)

Why would she be blue?

SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 62 pts · 241d (4 replies)

Da ba dee da ba di

BlackVenom@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 241d (3 replies)

What about her house and car?

zedgeist@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 240d (2 replies)

It was all yellow

DancingBear@midwest.social · 4 pts · 240d
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davidgro@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 240d

Ooooooooh Yeahhhhhhhhh

Iheartcheese@lemmy.world · 47 pts · 241d (13 replies)

She played mystique in several X-Men movies. mystique is blue in her natural form

SendMePhotos@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 241d (12 replies)

Oh neat. I never knew. Not super into superhero movies.

deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz · 28 pts · 241d (7 replies)

Just average into average hero movies then?

SendMePhotos@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 241d (6 replies)

Honestly yeah. Like SkyHigh, ClockStoppers, Futureman

Zahille7@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 241d

ClockStoppers

Goddamn...

fartographer@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 240d

Ah, so you only like movies and shows with penis fight scenes

Notyou@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 239d

DancingBear@midwest.social · 5 pts · 240d (3 replies)
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LavaPlanet@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 240d (2 replies)

Rebecca Romijn played mystique first, before the role she currently has, of Una, in star trek strange new worlds. She did it best.

DancingBear@midwest.social · 1 pts · 239d
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Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 239d

Weird they couldn't do this in post production.

captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 44 pts · 240d (1 reply)

There's makeup, and then there's having carpet laid on your face.

Sizing2673@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 240d

Oh kinky

someguy3@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 241d (7 replies)

Michael Dorn said "nope, no way, not doing that again, wait, how much?" (Wrt DS9)

fonix232@fedia.io · 37 pts · 241d (1 reply)

To be fair, in the near 40 years between the beginning of TNG and Picard S3, makeup tech has improved vastly.

In the 80s we were talking about heavy, hot prosthetics under very bright, hot lights.

Today, those prosthetics are slim, silicone moulded to the person's face, with skin-friendlier glues, much less makeup required to hide it, and better CGI that helps eliminate makeup mistakes.

brbposting@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 240d

Neat

Iheartcheese@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 241d (4 replies)

Dorn had been begging for his own show for decades

aeronmelon@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 241d (2 replies)

Like the Sulu series, that ship has unfortunately sailed.

So many good ideas left behind because of the cheap bastards controlling the brand.

massacre@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 241d (1 reply)

Not only will this now accelerate, any fresh IP will get the dreaded production interference with MAGA themes

Tinidril@midwest.social · 5 pts · 241d

The name "Enterprise" was from the start a right wing capitulation to avoid a moral panic over space communism and a diverse crew.

VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 240d

Yeah, Dorn never had a problem with the makeup, he had a problem with Worf getting bodied and overruled every episode.

VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 14 pts · 240d

It really goes to show the talent that Jim Carrey has as an actor. I'm sure that Grinch costume was extremely restrictive, but his Grinch is almost more expressive than the animated ones. Contrast that with Mike Myers' Cat in the Hat, where The Cat emotes like he has daily botox injections, and you really start to get a picture of how much Carrey put into his performance.

SatyrSack@quokk.au · 4 pts · 241d (1 reply)

And they still end up looking like stiff puppets

DancingBear@midwest.social · 2 pts · 240d
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iatenine@piefed.social · 70 pts · 240d

The dude who created SEAL Team 6 helped Carrey endure the Grinch make-up is a wild tidbit to bury way so deep in an article like this

danc4498@lemmy.world · 62 pts · 241d (1 reply)

This was a very interesting read. This was my favorite tidbit.

“There was a popular movie website at the time, Ain’t It Cool News, and the guy who ran it was a fan of my work, and I contacted him,” Baker continued. “I said, ‘Listen, Universal wants to paint Jim Carrey green. I feel it’s a major mistake. I did a test on myself of what I think it should look like. Can you somehow say that you saw this test and that Universal is making a major mistake and they don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about?’ And he did. And it was outrageous responses from everybody. ‘What the hell is wrong with these people at Universal? I don’t want to see green Jim Carrey. I want to see a Grinch!’ Blah, blah, blah. So they finally caved in.”

sheridan@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 240d

Wow, I had completely forgotten about Ain't It Cool News. It's still running.

daw@feddit.org · 35 pts · 240d

“But what really helped me through the makeup process, which they eventually pulled down to about three hours, was the Bee Gees. I listened through the makeup process to the entire Bee Gees catalogue. Their music is so joyful. I’ve never met Barry Gibb, but I want to thank him.”

TheKingBombOmbKiller@lemmy.zip · 32 pts · 240d

Fun fact: How the Grinch stole Christmas is one of three Christmas movies in history to win an Academy Award, and did so for Best makeup.

HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 240d (1 reply)


Feels

orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts · 6 pts · 240d

“I’m gonna rip the fuckin’ head off!”

I have a friend that dresses as Karl Havoc every Halloween. He’s a drummer in a band and played dressed as him for a Halloween show.

AnyOldName3@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 241d (2 replies)

Even in 2000, I feel like they should have been able to compromise, e.g. by doing his sclera and covering up breathing holes on the computer, but still having the rest be makeup, prosthetics and a costume.

chisel@piefed.social · 15 pts · 240d (1 reply)

The article says they offered to color Carrey's eyes green with CGI but he opted for the painful contact lenses anyway.

TheKingBombOmbKiller@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 240d

The training worked almost too well.

itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 241d (2 replies)

The Tin Man and Wicked Witch would like a word

deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz · 10 pts · 241d

Smoking more cigarettes should sort that out.

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 240d

And the lady from Goldfinger

bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 240d

He did so damn well in this

joelfromaus@aussie.zone · 8 pts · 239d

Just read the full article. It was a fantastic read considering how much I’ve loved the movie since I was a kid.

MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 240d

I think it's one of the best acting performances in history.

UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 240d (3 replies)

Isnt Jim Carrey anti vax?

AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 23 pts · 240d (2 replies)

His ex wife is, I think he's changed views

prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 240d

I forget what I watched about them, but it seems like she really did a number on him

AlexanderTheDead@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 239d

I can't find any evidence that he's changed his views.