It Was No Picnic for Me Either, Pal
At the time, Hiro said all was well that ended well.
“About two months after the filming was completed, Jim and I talked again,” he told the Times. “He said he admired me, and told me I did a great job and said thanks. I thanked him too, because he went through that whole thing. I think How the Grinch Stole Christmas was the hardest film I’ve ever worked on. It is a good memory, but if we had to do that again…we won’t do it!”
As it turned out, Hiro—who’s won two Oscars since, for 2017’s Darkest Hour and 2019’s Bombshell—started therapy after his experience on HTGSC.
It got bad enough, Hiro told Vulture in 2018, that a producer suggested he leave to show Carrey how essential he was to the production. (The film’s makeup department was huge, but among the credits Hiro is the only one dedicated to the Grinch.)
He didn’t answer when Carrey called after a week, Hiro said, but Howard assured him the actor had sworn to change his ways.
While his friends encouraged him to ask for a big raise, the Kyoto-born artist continued, he decided he’d ask the studio for help getting a green card instead.
It worked, and he’s since become an American citizen. (And therapy helped him realize that he was “really an introvert.”)