In its early stages, Ron Howard’s 2000 adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas was shaping up to be a very different movie. Even landing the rights to make it in the first place was no easy task. Dr. Seuss’s widow, Audrey Geisel, had specific rules for anyone hoping to turn it into a feature film. Firstly, they had to pay $5 million for that privilege, and on top of that, they had to give up half of the merchandising revenue, 4% of the box-office gross, and 70% of any profits from book tie-ins.
If someone was willing to go along with that, there were still other qualifications the lead actor and director were required to meet. In order to be considered for the role of the Grinch, an actor had to be “of comparable stature to Jack Nicholson, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, and Dustin Hoffman.” As for the director, he or she had to have earned at least $1 million on an earlier film. Clearly, Geisel wasn’t looking for anyone without a proven track record.
Nicholson was one of her top choices, and the idea had gone far enough that a CG-animated version was being planned, complete with illustrations of the Grinch looking very Nicholson-like. Full House star John Stamos was also being considered at one point and even did a makeup test. He found out he was allergic to the prosthetics and had to drop out. Fox was close to sealing the deal, but Universal offered Geisel more money and closed the deal.
Finally, Jim Carrey and Ron Howard met Geisel’s standard and signed on to the film. That didn’t stop her, however, as Geisel kept asking for rewrites. It reportedly took eight drafts before she was satisfied with the script. Apparently, the writers initially included some sexual humor that she didn’t like. Geisel also didn’t care for a joke where the Grinch referred to a Jewish family as the “Who-steins.” A number of “bathroom jokes” similarly got the axe because, as she saw it, “That’s not the Seuss world, not at all.”
With those elements out of the way, Geisel finally gave the film her stamp of approval. The finished movie brought tears to her eyes, and when all was said and done, she told producer Brian Grazer that her husband “would have loved it so much.” The movie went on to gross more than $346 million worldwide, making all their time and effort worth all of the hurdles in the long run.
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