Jim Carrey is reportedly in talks to return as the Grinch in a sequel to the iconic Christmas movie – but how much do you know about the iconic actor.
The live-action movie How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) has become a staple part of Christmas viewing for millions of people young and old across the world.
The movie, based on the classic story by Dr Seuss, was vividly brought to life by director Ron Howard, with Jim Carrey as the titular character, putting in a memorable performance, blending his trademark physical comedy with a healthy dose of pathos.
Now, more than 25 years later, Deadline has reported that Jim is in talks to reprise his role as the Grinch in a proposed Grinch 2, with Ron Howard also potentially returning as director.
Details of what the potential plot would be have not been revealed as yet. That Jim would return is something of a surprise as he has previously talked about his discomfort in the prosthetics used in his Grinch costume.
But how much do you know about Jim Carrey? Here are some facts you might not know.
He first did stand-up at 15
Jim’s talent for making people laugh emerged when he was in school, when he found that making funny faces and doing impressions made his classmates laugh.
He first got on stage aged 15 at a comedy club called Yuk Yuk’s in Toronto, Canada. However, his act didn’t go down well. Dressed in a polyester leisure suit and doing conventional impressions didn’t impress Yuk Yuk’s audience, used to more adult and raunchy material.
For a couple of years afterwards, Carrey avoided the stage for various reasons, but in 1979 he was back with a more polished act, and he soon went from open mic nights to paid gigs.
He dropped out of school
At school, Jim was often the class clown – there is a story that a teacher once let him do 15 minutes standup in front of the class at the end of the day, just so he would leave his classmates in peace.
However, school wasn’t for Jim and he dropped out on his 16th birthday. At the time, his family was struggling financially and Jim and his brother would work as janitors and security guards at a local factory where their dad worked. But during this time, he kept working on his comedy routines.
His first acting role was on a CBC movie
After Jim’s standup comedy career started to take off, he tried to break into sketch comedy and got as far as auditioning for the 1980-1 season of Saturday Night Live, but the producers preferred Charles Rocket instead.
He appeared on An Evening at the Improv in 1981, which was his first television appearance. Later that year, he was one of the leads in Introducing… Janet, a made-for-TV movie that aired on CBC, where he played at struggling impressionist comic.
He predicted his $10 million paycheck
While Jim’s career steadily grew during the 1980s, including appearing in various relatively short-lived comedy shows, he hadn’t broken through to star status. But Jim never wavered in his belief that he would make it in the end. Indeed, he even wrote himself a $10 million cheque in 1990 for ‘acting services rendered’, dated Thanksgiving 1995. By 1994, when he starred in Dumb and Dumber, he was earning $10 million per movie.
He is passionate about art
Jim also loves making art, especially painting, and he has publicly exhibited his work. In 2011, his painting, Nothing to See Here, at a show in Palm Springs. Jim has also exhibited work at the Outsider Art Fair – although whether you can class a Hollywood star as an ‘outsider’ is a matter for debate.
In 2017, Jim released a six-minute documentary, entitled, I Needed Color, which showed him working in his studio.
