A right festive Carrey-on

It should come as no surprise that Jim Carrey isn't himself today. After all, he's hardly recognisable in his new movie either.

Cool, calm and collected, there is little hint of the larger-than-life characters he's created on screen - from the rubber-faced lunatic Ace Ventura, who launched his career in 1994, to the slack-jawed innocent, Truman Burbank, who brought him critical acclaim in 1998 - as he makes his way across Soundstage 6 on the Universal lot in Hollywood.

This is the same venue where Carrey spent the better part of four months filming Dr Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas (retitled here as simply The Grinch), which opens across Britain tomorrow. But this time around the 6ft 2in star seems determined to set his own agenda, dressed in an enviably hip black leather jacket and jeans in lieu of the green fur suit and prosthetics he's currently sporting on screen.

'I wouldn't say playing The Grinch was an easy experience,' he says, taking a swig from a bottle of mineral water. 'Let's just say it was like having a refrigerator strapped to your back... And then somebody tells you, OK - now dance!'

Written by Theodore Geisel - aka Dr Seuss - in 1957, the Grinch has waited over 40 years to get his big-screen makeover, mostly owing to the late author's misgivings. 'Hollywood is not suited for me and I'm not suited for it,' he famously remarked. An animated television special (which remains a perennial US holiday favourite) was made with the good doctor's consent in 1966 for a then princely price tag of $315,000. But after convincing Seuss's widow, Audrey Geisel, that he was the one to actually bring The Grinch to life, Carrey's live-action version cost the studio a reported $120 million.

The slim children's classic has been expanded on screen by director Ron Howard (Apollo 13, Backdraft), to tell the story of a little girl (newcomer Taylor Momsen) who seeks out Whoville's most infamous outsider and brings him back to her never-never land's community fold. Though a simple enough tale on paper, the fantasy adaptation required the construction of the largest set ever built on the Universal lot, and special teams working around the clock to provide for over 125 separate character creations. 'I grew up with it, so he was kind of an icon for me,' says Carrey, who spent 90 shooting days in his Grinch costume and make-up - an ordeal he's likened to being 'buried alive on a daily basis'. 'It made me feel good to be doing it,' he says now. 'But the side dish, the thing that comes with the meal, is that you're telling a story about a character overcoming his sense of alienation... a story about that sense of belonging that Christmas is meant to be about.'

'This character was ultimately Jim's invention,' says Howard, who fought Universal until the last minute to keep Carrey in his feature-distorting make-up. 'The reason we had to use Jim is the same reason why somebody else couldn't have played Chaplin's little tramp,' he explains. 'Anyone can swing a cane and wear the hat. But it takes Chaplin to create The Tramp. Similarly, I felt it was going to be Jim's interpretation under all that make-up which would make the difference. This wasn't just a good role he could grab, it became his passion and he wasn't going to let anybody else play the part... Sure, Jim understands that blend between a heightened cartoon world and reality like no-one else. But he also related to this angry character... I wouldn't say he's enraged with the world or anything. But he's a loner. And he understood this.'

Rest assured, Howard is talking about the same man who first made his name by talking, quite literally, out of his arse in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, who first captivated US television audiences by setting himself on fire in In Living Color, and who more recently attempted to strangle himself in his split-personality comedy Me, Myself & Irene. But while Carrey often alienates as often as he entertains, it would be a mistake to simply write him off. This is also the man who, after all, earns up to $20 million a film and remains the most popular comic actor working today - inheriting the mantle abandoned by Steve Martin over a decade ago. For Carrey, filming The Grinch may even represent a logical extension of the social misfits he's come to embody in more dramatic efforts such as The Truman Show and last year's Man On The Moon.

'That's how Hollywood sees me, a loner,' laughs the 38-year-old Carrey. 'But I think everyone feels like that at some point, especially when you first come to Hollywood. I came here from a small town in Canada and felt like I had walked into a TV show or something. It was just completely foreign to me. I felt lonely...But it's always been the same. Growing up, when everybody was outside playing ball, I'd be there in my room trying to come up with routines and ideas that would impress people in some way. And in a way, I'm still doing it.'

Born and raised in Ontario, Carrey certainly didn't have an easy time growing up. Dropping out of school to help support his family, he eventually abandoned a factory job for the stand-up comedy circuit, which took him to Los Angeles at the age of 19. It would take him another 13 years to really become famous. As the story goes, he simply wrote himself a cheque for $20 million and carried it in his wallet until he earned that amount for his 1996 film, The Cable Guy.