The producer reveals he and director Ron Howard were a month away from shooting the movie when their leading man threatened to quit because he couldn't take the three hours of daily make-up that was required to turn him into The Grinch.

Glazer recalls, "I'm watching Jim Carrey continually be uncomfortable having this three-and-a-half hours of prosthetics being welded to his body and then these green, Frisbee-like contact lenses.

"So one day he's so uncomfortable and he's thought about this, and he's being paid $20 million to do this movie... (and) he says, 'I can't do this any longer, I'm gonna give all the money back... This is torturous to me'."

Glazer adds, "It occurred to me when he said 'torturous' that I'd met a man 15 years before that, that actually trains green berets and other operatives... how to survive torture... I say to Jim Carrey, 'Please, just give us the weekend... Just meet this one man'.

"I called the guy... and I get a hold of him and I said, 'Please will you spend a weekend with Jim Carrey'. On Monday, Jim Carrey said, 'I'll do the movie'."