Jim Carrey’s makeup artist sought therapy and threatened to quit the film unless he got a green card

Long before the days of motion capture and modern CGI we have today, actors had to put on painful costumes, spend long hours in the makeup chair, and endure hell to shoot a film. And that’s precisely what Jim Carrey suffered while filming his famous Christmas classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

While we’ve all heard Carrey’s story about how he spent hours in the makeup chair, his award-winning makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji had an even more painful experience that led him to seek therapy.

Kazuhiro Tsuji was so traumatized by Jim Carrey Grumpy that he had to seek therapy

A film needs a lot of things and people to take shape, and the makeup department is probably one of the most crucial that helps make a project grow. None of this is more true than in the case of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. With Jim Carrey, the makeup process was an incredibly arduous experience, not only for Carrey but also for his makeup artist, who was particularly traumatized by the Hollywood star’s behavior.

The makeup process involved multiple prosthetics, green yak fur, and enlarged contact lenses, which apparently took a toll on Carrey’s behavior on set, leading to extreme problems with the makeup artist, Kazuhiro Tsuji. In an interview with Vulture, Tsuji revealed that it took two weeks to complete the three days of filming because the actor would suddenly disappear. Every day presented a new challenge and Tsuji was so mentally exhausted that he took a few days off.

Although Carrey called him (he didn’t pick up the phone), director Ron Howard promised that Carrey swore he would get better. After talking and discussing the whole affair with his friends, Tsuji, although deeply unhappy, decided to ask the cast and crew to help him obtain a green card, the only condition for which he returned to work. He ultimately won the BAFTA for his work on the film and his application was approved.

However, the award-winning makeup artist had to start seeing a therapist and leave the acting business for a while because he was so traumatized by the whole ordeal, although Carrey’s behavior improved upon his return.

Jim Carrey is ready to return as the Grinch

Jim Carrey had one of the worst moments of his life while filming How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In one instance, the actor even described the whole makeup thing as be buried alive every day on the Graham Norton Show and had to be trained by a man whose job it was to train CIA agents to endure torture. Still, the actor recently said he might be open to returning to his fan-favorite role.

After retiring from acting in 2022, the actor returned to the acting world in the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3. In an interview with ComicBook.com for the film, when asked if there was a character he would like to see again, Carrey said:

Oh, my God, you know, if we could find out about the Grinch. The problem is that the day of, I do this with a ton of makeup and I have trouble breathing. It was an extremely excruciating process. The children were on my mind all the time. “It’s for the kids. It’s for children. It’s for children. And now with motion capture and things like that, I could be free to do other things. Everything is possible in this world.

So while he may be on hiatus, it would be great to see the actor one day return as the Grinch if only he could do it without long hours in the makeup chair and using CGI. But until then, How the Grinch Stole Christmas remains a classic and owes its enduring popularity to the extraordinary portrayal of Jim Carrey and, to a large extent, the effort, time and hard work of Kazuhiro Tsuji.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas is available for streaming on Netflix.