Carrey says costume painful in 'Grinch'

The Grinch irritated Jim Carrey about as much as he did all the Whos in Whoville.

Carrey said his costume in "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas," was so painful that he compared it to being buried alive. He said the special contact lenses he had to wear "were like knives in my eyes."

"It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life," Carrey says in the Nov. 18 issue of TV Guide. "It was very claustrophobic."

Carrey enlisted the help of a Navy SEAL to help him deal with the discomfort. "He gave me a couple of physical things that I could do, like pinching my leg when I start getting a panic attack."