CIA experts often consult on Hollywood movies but Jim Carrey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas required a special operation. Producers brought in an expert who trains spies how to withstand torture.

Carrey said he felt ‘buried alive’ under mounds of green make-up and prosthetics: “The first day was eight-and-a-half hours and I went back to my trailer and put my leg through the wall.”

The actor was ready to quit when Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer (Apollo 13, Empire) made a call.

“One of the CIA people I’d talked to years before specialized in training US agents to survive torture if they were captured,” Grazer recalled in A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. “We had an actor being held prisoner by his costume - he was being tortured by his makeup.”

 
CIA taught Carrey 'distraction techniques'

The CIA specialist holed up with Carrey for a weekend, teaching him distraction techniques and how to create mindsets to work through the discomfort. 

“If you’re freaking out and spiraling downward, turn the television on, change a pattern, or have someone you know come up and smack you in the head, punch yourself in the leg, or smoke - smoke as much as you possibly can,” Carrey told British chat show host Graham Norton. ‍
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Carrey calmed himself with the Bee Gees

Each morning, for 92 days, The Grinch’s make-up artists spent two-and-a-half hours applying prosthetics and green paint, then gluing hairpieces to Carry’s scalp. It took another hour to remove the make-up each night.

Throughout it all, Carrey found solace chain-smoking through a long cigarette holder so his Yak hair wouldn’t ignite. He also listened to the Bee Gees, which he found calming. 

Ron Howard dressed as The Grinch

Director Ron Howard spent a day fully made up and dressed as the Grinch to understand the emotions Carrey was feeling. Howard (Apollo 13) reportedly arrived on the set at 3:30 am one morning to get 'Grinch-ed up' and Carrey said he appreciated the sentiment.

“I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t scratch myself. The physical restraints were unbelievable. It was just like having a refrigerator strapped to your back,” Carrey said.
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The Grinch's special effects challenges

Some of the crew found the movie challenging also.

Special effects artist Kazuhiro Tsuji (Men in Black, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) found it so difficult he checked into therapy at one point. Tsuji returned to the set after Carrey learned how to deal with the onerous Grinch make-up.

Jim Carrey: Zen at last

By the end of his CIA training and three months of filming, Carrey said he had learned patience. 

“By the end, you could literally hit me in the face with a baseball bat and I would have gone… ’Good morning. Nice to see you.’”