Here is the reason why Cindy Lou was the only Who in Whoville who didn’t have a prosthetic nose while filming for Dr. Seuss adaption How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Released back in 2000, the Christmas classic saw Jim Carrey star in the role of Grinch, a bad-tempered and festivity-hating green creature who takes pleasure in terrorising the merry residents of Whoville.
The Christmas-loving Whos are characterised by their elaborate hairdos and upturned noses.
However, eagle-eyed viewers will notice that young Cindy Lou Who is the only member of Whoville who doesn’t have the distinctive upturned nose.
In the film, Cindy’s lack of pointy nose was explained away by the line ‘she hasn’t even grown into her nose yet’. However, there was a much more practical reason for it behind the scenes.
Cindy Lou was famously portrayed by Gossip Girl actress-turned-rockstar Taylor Momsen, who was just six years old when filming started in September 1999, which meant that her working conditions were drastically different as a child actor.
Reflecting on her lack of prosthetics in an interview with The Today Show (via The Mirror), Momsen said: “I do remember having a lot of fun on that set. I mean the prosthetics for example, all the Whos wore prosthetics but I was too young to actually wear the prosthetics, so they wrote a line into the film of, ‘She hasn’t even grown into her nose yet’.
“So, they just put a little blush on my nose.”
Despite being too young to wear prosthetics, Momsen wasn’t excluded from other aspects of the eccentric Who costumes such has elaborate wigs and false teeth.
“I remember it was the first time I’d ever worn a wig in my life. Putting all my hair into the bobby pins and into the wig cap and the big wig every day,” she explained.
“It was the first time I ever wore fake eyelashes, and I had the fake teeth and I remember with the fake teeth, I hated the taste of the glue that went in… and so I wouldn’t take them out once I put them in and I would eat with them and everything.”
Despite The Grinch being considered one of the greats of Christmas cinema, Momsen would admit she struggled with her fame in the following years. During an appearance alongside her former Gossip Girl co-star Penn Badgley on his podcast, she revealed the film led to her being known as ‘Grinch girl’ in school.
And the Whos of Whoville of course have those rather distinct, unique little noses.
At the centre of the story (alongside Jim Carrey’s Grinch) is little Cindy Lou Who.
Taylor Momsen played the little girl who tries to reform the grumpy Christmas-stealer.
Despite only being seven at the time, she still remembers a whole lot from the set of the 2000 movie.
The 30-year-old actor turned rock musician has since revealed just why she got away without wearing a prosthetic nose like all the other Whos.
In an interview with the Today Show, Momsen explained why she didn’t have to wedge on a presumably fairly heavy and uncomfortable prosthetic.
She said: “I do remember having a lot of fun on that set. I mean the prosthetics for example, all the Whos wore prosthetics but I was too young to actually wear the prosthetics, so they wrote a line into the film of, ‘She hasn’t even grown into her nose yet’.
“So, they just put a little blush on my nose.”
However, young Momsen didn’t get away that easily.
“I remember it was the first time I’d ever worn a wig in my life. Putting all my hair into the bobby pins and into the wig cap and the big wig every day.
“It was the first time I ever wore fake eyelashes, and I had the fake teeth and I remember with the fake teeth, I hated the taste of the glue that went in. […] And so I wouldn’t take them out once I put them in and I would eat with them and everything,” she recalled.
The actors playing Whos also had to take part in ‘what we called ‘Who School’, Momsen said. “Because there’s so many acrobats and contortionists and Whos have all these walking on top of balls and all these things.”
Momsen herself had to complete ‘about a month’ of training ‘learning how to do the stunts’ because she did ‘most of the stunts’ herself.
“[I] had to learn all the safety protocols and how to fall down a trap door without getting hurt. I remember that as like ‘Who Bootcamp’.”
Having gotten away with no prosthetic nose, Momsen – who is recognised ‘quite a bit’ for her role in the film – resolved: “It was a ball. All the stunts I loved. It was such an amazing thing I got to be a part of that.”
Now we’ve hit the first full week of December, you’ll all be able to feel Christmas creeping ever closer.
With Mariah Carey officially defrosted and Netflix uploading this year’s latest Lindsay Lohan festive flick, next time you blink it will be December 28th and we’ll all be skint, hungover, and with a deep sense of existential dread.
Just me on that last one?
Regardless, the lead up to Christmas is the perfect excuse to watch some great Christmas films.
Whether your favourite is Elf, Home Alone, or the objectively correct choice (It’s a Wonderful Life), everyone will have their personal option.
For many, this will be How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the festive classic starring Jim Carrey, Jeffrey Tambor, and Christine Baranski.
The film tells the story of the Dr Seuss classic, in which a cynical green monster The Grinch plots to ruin Christmas for the people living in ‘Whoville’.
This is all before he meets Cindy Lou Who, a little girl who teaches The Grinch the meaning of Christmas and warms his ice-cold heart.
Adorable.
The film version of Cindy Lou is played by Taylor Momsen, and unlike other Christmas child stars such as Succession’s Kieran Culkin (he played the kid in Home Alone who kept pi**ing himself), she didn’t become famous for her acting after the film, even though she did appear in Gossip Girl.
Instead, Momsen became the lead singer of a world-famous rock band. As you do.
Momsen is the lead vocalist for The Pretty Reckless, a rock group that is currently touring the world opening for AC/DC and setting records along the way.
One of the records is that amongst female-led rock bands, The Pretty Reckless are on their own when it comes to the Billboard charts.
The group has the most Rock Billboard number ones of any female led band, with their 2021 single ‘Death by Rock and Roll’ clocking in as their fifth number one track.
This single was the lead one on their album of the same name, their fourth.
The album landed at the top of Billboard’s Album Sales chart.
After debuting with 16,000 sales in the US, the record was also number one on the Current Rock Albums chart, the Record Label Independent Albums chart and Internet Albums chart.
Speaking to Today back in 2020, Momsen revealed that her time on set of The Grinch actually ended up influencing not only her career in acting, but also her music.
Recalling what it was like working with Jim Carrey, Momsen said: “I remember him being so kind, so concerned, but so methodical with what he was doing.
“Even at that young of an age, I remember watching him and going, ‘I’m watching an artist right now at work’.”
She continued: “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.
“Aside from how amazing Jim Carrey’s performance is and the theatrics that went into the shoot, just the way the film looks and moves and is edited is amazing in its own right.”
As for how the role impacted her move into the music industry, Momsen remembered feeling inspired after seeing celebrated composer, James Horner, at work in the studio.
Momsen said: “The thing that I remember the most that probably resonated with me to this day as an adult was the first time that I went into a recording studio and got to work with the amazing James Horner.
“And I’ll never forget walking into this beautiful studio, with this immaculate console in front of me, and putting headphones on and singing into a microphone for the first time, singing ‘Where Are You Christmas’.”
“That was such an impactful moment in my life because it made me go, ‘I wanna make music for the rest of my life. I love being in a recording studio’.”
She added: “I’m in my bedroom singing ‘Where Are You Christmas’ with the flashlight. I mean, essentially, that was my first music video. So I always get a kick out of that. And I remember thinking that was a really fun scene to film.”
