15 Film Stars You Couldn’t Recognize In Films

5. Jim Carey: The Grinch

Jim Carey is well known for most of his roles because of his distinctive acting style and sense of humor, but his fantastic portrayal of the Grinch in the Dr Seuss Christmas classic often goes by unnoticed by even his most avid fans.

Carrey was paid $20 million for the movie and dressed up beyond recognition. Knowing how much the celebrated comedian can contribute with his signature acting, The Grinch role transformed the actor so much that he was not left with much space to improvise. However, recognizable or not, he did the job just right.

This is certainly his least Carrey-esque movie, but there were, of course, segments where we witnessed his classical conventions. Even though it seems like anyone could do the role with such a classy mask, Carrey was not a disappointment in this performance. In fact Carrey’s top-class acting could only have been tarnished by Ron Howard’s adaptation of Dr Seuss book.

Carrey has established himself as an actor with a remarkable ability to transform, and for playing diverse characters as the manic in The Mask, or the damaged characters like in The Man on The Moon, The Truman Show, or Cable Guy, or the over-exaggerated wacky detective in Ace Ventura.

What he was needed for in Grinch was for employing all of his powers of exaggeration. The man does not need the mask, he’s invented the mask.

The movie fits his over-the-top acting preferences, as it is made for the younger audience. The costume designer was Rick Baker, whose makeup of Grinch made it unclear that Jim Carrey was behind it. Trivia reveals that Ron Howard had to employ over 45 makeup artists from 8000 applicants, for the high budget remake of How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

Jim Carrey was so stressed out and claustrophobic inside the latex mask, that he had to consult the Navy Seal for advice on torture resistance techniques. Rich Baker’s makeup won him an Oscar for Grinch mask at the 2001 Academy Awards Ceremony.