How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

With the combination of the make-up (he couldn't breathe through his nose), contact lenses, false teeth and the suit, "it was like being buried alive on a daily basis," recalls Carrey. "I was really miserable but the minute Ron said "action" I lost all sense of discomfort."

The process took three hours every morning for Carrey. "I was always a little late each day because I really had to psyche myself up to get into the make up trailer."

Carrey kept telling Howard he should see what it was like for him, so one day Howard arrived at 4 am. and went through the Grinch make-up process and remained so (much to Carrey's delight and Howard's discomfort) for the day. "Ron never did the lenses, though," notes Carrey. "It covers your entire eyeball and that's what pushes you over Niagara; when that artificial snow gets in there; it's all over."

The false teeth Baker created for the Grinch were closer to a full denture so that Carrey had to talk a certain way to get around the teeth which gave certain words a Sean Connery quality to them."

The first question Ron Howard asked Christine Baranski when they initially met about the movie was not about her part but rather, "How do you feel about being in a make-up chair for three hours a day, because a lot of people can't tolerate it for that long."

For Brananski the make-up was liberating. "When you're covered it can release you physically. Your body gets freer and becomes more of a source of expression," she notes.

Underneath the Grinch suit as with all the Whos, padding was added to give all the characters their distinctly pear-shaped Seussian look.

Costume designer Rita Ryack was free to let her imagination run wild, since the characters in the movie (aside from the Grinch and Cindy) do not exist in the book. Though the mayor in Seuss' first book, And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street, was the source for Mayor May Who.

Ryack and her crew created everything from the shoes up, beginning with the padding for all the actors. She began sketching designs in May for a movie that started shooting in September, so the work was fast and furious resulting in the creation of over 400 outfits.

Having started years ago as a cartoonist and animator, Ryack decided to begin her work by trying to draw like Seuss.

"I thought if I drew rather frenetically maybe I would channel the right style," Ryack says. And of course, there were the hats. Seuss loved hats and his books are filled with them."

Ryack came up with designs for nearly 300 hats, many which were inspired by 1950s cookbooks.

"I love the photos of 1950s food, " says Ryack. 'They're styled and arranged just right and the colors are wonderful. I saw lots of photos of hors d'oeuvres and so we took that and made head pieces based on a lot of this food."

Much of Ryack's 1950s-inspired hat line is on display in the movie during the Whobilation.

"I tried to use materials that would have been available when Dr. Seuss was writing the book (1957). The Lou Who family was sort of a cockeyed version of the perfect '50s TV family and Martha (Christine Baranski) was so much fun since she was sort of like a Barbie doll you dress up in various outfits."

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