Taylor Momsen Reunites with Jim Carrey 25 Years After The Grinch — and Shares Her Favorite Memories of Him

“Watch­ing an artist at work and tak­ing their craft so seri­ous­ly, that left a real­ly pow­er­ful, last­ing impact,”

It’s been a quar­ter of a cen­tu­ry since How the Grinch Stole Christ­mas hit the­aters, yet Tay­lor Mom­sen still speaks of her time with Jim Car­rey with warmth and admi­ra­tion.

The pair reunit­ed on Novem­ber 8, 2025, at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induc­tion Cer­e­mo­ny — their first time see­ing each oth­er in 25 years. Mom­sen, now 32 and best known as the front­woman of The Pret­ty Reck­less, shared that revis­it­ing that chap­ter of her child­hood brought back cher­ished mem­o­ries from the set.

“I have a lot, hon­est­ly,” she recalled. “I just love that he was very pro­tec­tive of me. He was always very kind. And just the entire expe­ri­ence of film­ing Grinch and get­ting to know him so well, even in all the make­up, was just won­der­ful.”

At the time of film­ing, Mom­sen was only five years old, step­ping into the role of Cindy-Lou Who — the sweet, wide-eyed girl who melts the Grinch’s heart. Car­rey, then in his late 30s, endured hours of pros­thet­ics and green make­up each day to trans­form into the reclu­sive crea­ture of Whoville.

“As a young per­son watch­ing an artist at work and tak­ing their craft so seri­ous­ly, that left a real­ly pow­er­ful, last­ing impact on me as an adult now,” she said. “And I’m excit­ed to be able to tell him that as a grownup.”

Despite work­ing along­side one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Mom­sen admits she didn’t actu­al­ly know what Jim Car­rey looked like while film­ing. Cov­ered head to toe in pros­thet­ics and yak fur, Car­rey was unrec­og­niz­able to his young co-star — but that nev­er intim­i­dat­ed her.

“To me, he was always Jim and he was always in make­up. He was very pro­tec­tive of me, very kind, super fun­ny, super ani­mat­ed, absolute­ly awe­some,” she said on the Call Her Dad­dy pod­cast ear­li­er this month. “But the fun­ny thing is I nev­er knew what Jim Car­rey looked like because I nev­er saw him because he was there way ear­ly doing the pros­thet­ics.”

“I did­n’t know who Jim was until the pre­miere and some­one had to point him out to me and go, ‘That’s Jim,’” she added. “And I went, ‘Oh, Jim.’”

Even now, the bond between the two seems unchanged — root­ed in the care and pro­fes­sion­al­ism Car­rey showed his young co-star decades ago.

When asked why she thinks The Grinch con­tin­ues to res­onate across gen­er­a­tions, Mom­sen shared her thoughts dur­ing a 2020 inter­view with Today: “I think that peo­ple love The Grinch just sim­ply because the core of the sto­ry is so sweet and it’s so heart­warm­ing and it has such a good mes­sage. That no mat­ter what age touch­es your heart, I think that that’s an amaz­ing thing to be a part of.”

She added, “The fact that it comes back around every year — I think it’s some­thing to look for­ward to. And I think it just kin­da brings hap­pi­ness and joy to any­one who watch­es it.”

Car­rey has expressed sim­i­lar grat­i­tude over the years. In 2024, he told Extra he was “so grat­i­fied” that The Grinch had become “one of the yule logs peo­ple go to” each hol­i­day sea­son. “When it pops up every year,” he said, “I’m real­ly hap­py about it.”

Twen­ty-five years lat­er, the film — and the friend­ship it forged — con­tin­ue to warm hearts just as much as they did in Whoville.