Carrey Has Soft Spot For The Grinch

From Ace Ventura to Andy Kauffman, Jim Carrey has never been one to shy away from unusual characters. But his latest on-screen oddball, the nasty, Christmas-hating Grinch, may prove to be one of his biggest box office draws ever.

CBS News Entertainment Correspondent Mark McEwen spoke to Carrey and asked him what he saw in the green grouch.

Carrey said he was always fascinated with the illustration of the Grinch in the book.

"The drawing was so beautiful," said Carrey, who drew a lot himself when he was a kid. "The Chuck Jones stuff was incredible. The weird, odd, little, you know, tableaux that he would strike when he was perplexed and stuff -- it was amazing. You know, the curling of the mouth in the corners and stuff."

Carey doesn't think that the Grinch is bad at all.

"This tale speaks a lot to the idea that anybody can be reached," said Carey. "At some point in people's lives, if they feel like they're not part of the club, they tend to...build up a callous against the world. That's what the Grinch has done, he's built up a callous. And he doesn't even know that he wants to be part of the whole thing."

Carrey wore an eighth of an inch of rubber around his face, but he said he approached the Grinch's character from the inside out. He said his breakthrough into the Grinch's character happened when he was on vacation.

"I was angry one day about something, and I suddenly realized, 'Hey, I'm not angry. I'm hurt.' And that was the key...to the Grinch. He's hurt. He just feels bad. And he's just built up this denial, like, 'I don't need you,' kind of thing to protect himself," said Carey. "I could do the Grinch and make people love the Grinch with that in mind."

Although Carrey is now one of the best-paid movie stars in the business, his family struggled during his childhood, alternating from poverty to middle-class comfort, according to Hollywood.com

Carrey worked hard during school, excelling in his academics and in entertaining his friends. He was supporting himself as a comedian by the time he was 22.

In the 1980s he had supporting roles in movies such as Peggy Sue Got Married but it was his role on the comedy television show In Living Color that first brought him great success.

In 1994, Carrey became a superstar when he starred in three blockbusters: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber.

During shooting, it took many hours every day to create the elaborate mask and costume that Carrey wears as the Grinch. Carrey compares it to "performing with a fridge on your back. You know, it was tough."

So tough that director Ron Howard tried to raise a little morale by getting into the Grinch make-up himself.

"I wandered into Jim's trailer," recalls Howard. "And he [Carrey] sort of did a double take. He was looking kind of cornfully, you know? He went 'Ron?' and gave me this big hug. He was like, 'Ron, I thought you were a bad Grinch double because you were five inches too short."

An ex-Navy S.E.A.L. was brought in to help Jim deal with the frustration of having to be inside the mask for so many hours.

Selective filmography:

• Me, Myself and Irene, 2000
  
• Man on the Moon, 1999
  
• In My Life, 1998
  
• Simon Birch, 1998
  
• The Truman Show, 1998
  
• Liar, Liar, 1997
  
• The Cable Guy, 1996
  
• Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, 1995
  
• Batman Forever, 1995
  
• Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, 1994
  
• Dumb And Dumber, 1994
  
• The Mask, 1994
  
• Earth Girls Are Easy, 1989