24 December 2023 , 21:30
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Jim Carrey's performance as The Grinch is memorable - and the odd faces of the rest of the cast stick in the mind, too.
The 2000 movie How The Grinch Stole Christmas is based on the book of the same name by American children's author Dr. Seuss, who was also responsible for all of the illustrations in the timeless festive classic. When the time came to bring his story to life on the big screen, the director honoured both the plot of the book and the writer's vision for how the residents of Whoville looked.
The Whoville citizens, known as Who, had a small upturned nose and a long, rounded philtrum - the space between the base of the nose and the upper lip. The entire cast wore facial prosthetics as part of their costumes - except for Taylor Momsen, who played young Cindy Lou in the Christmas classic.
Taylor, now 30, told The Today Show: "I do remember having a lot of fun on that set. I mean the prosthetics for example, all the Whos wore prosthetics but I was too young to actually wear the prosthetics, so they wrote a line into the film of, 'She hasn't even grown into her nose yet'. So, they just put a little blush on my nose."
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Taylor Momsen as Cindy Lou in The Grinch, with Jim CarreyBut while she escaped the fake nose, there were other bits of costume which she couldn't avoid - and as a 7-year-old it was a brand new experience. She said: "I remember it was the first time I'd ever worn a wig in my life. Putting all my hair into the bobby pins and into the wig cap and the big wig every day.
"It was the first time I ever wore fake eyelashes, and I had the fake teeth and I remember with the fake teeth, I hated the taste of the glue that went in... and so I wouldn't take them out once I put them in and I would eat with them and everything."
There was more prep to be done before the cameras started rolling on set. Taylor and the other Who actors had to learn how to do stunts so they could move like the inhabitants of Whoville did in the book. She called these sessions "Who School.. because there's so many acrobats and contortionists and Whos have all these walking on top of balls and all these things.”
Taylor was training for a month "learning how to do the stunts". She said: "I had to learn all the safety protocols and how to fall down a trap door without getting hurt. I remember that as like 'Who Bootcamp'. It was a ball. All the stunts I loved. It was such an amazing thing I got to be a part of that."
As a teen, Taylor went on to star as Jenny Humphrey in the hit show Gossip Girl, and then put her acting days behind her to pursue music. But she also revealed that the role didn't just bring sweetness and festive merriment to her life.
Taylor had to wear a wig and fake teeth for the role, but the nose was her own (Universal Pictures)She has said that she was "relentlessly" bullied after taking on the sweet and sugary role of blonde hair and blue-eyed Cindy Lou. Speaking on SiriusXM's Podcrushed podcast with her on-screen brother from Gossip Girl, Taylor admitted that starring as Cindy Lou in The Grinch changed her life in a "multitude of ways" before brazenly admitting: "One of them being I was made fun of relentlessly."
She said: "Every time I would start a new school or go somewhere else, I don't even think the kids knew my name. I was just Grinch Girl." She went on: "Not even the character name, just 'Grinch girl'. I got used to it, but it was alienating."
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