“It doesn’t matter where Mr. Grinch slept,” the father, played by Mikey Day, tells his children when they ask why the Grinch stayed on Christmas Eve. “The important thing is that yesterday his heart grew three sizes.” Kristen Wiig, who plays the mother, responds dryly: “Not the only thing that grew three sizes.”
For those who view the Grinch as an unattractive character with a bad attitude, his turn as an object of desire may be unexpected. But for fans, the appeal is obvious.
“He’s like an anarchic, jaded sad boy,” said Meggie Gates, 27, a freelance writer and comedian in Chicago who explored the Grinch’s sex appeal in detail in an article in Cosmopolitan earlier this month. “He’s the guy who wears Doc Martens, a leather jacket and hat in a bar.” The Grinch is a mess, Mx. Gates added, but that’s part of the appeal: “There’s an innate urge to be like, ‘I can fix this guy.'”
Jacob Baeza, 43, an actor in Orange County, California, has performed as the Grinch at private events. “He’s a bad boy,” said Mr. Baeza, adding that he plays the Grinch’s sass during his performances and even flirts with his audience. “These guys had a ball with me last time,” Mr. Baeza said. ‘They said, ‘Where’s the party?’ ‘Join me tonight.’”
Part of the Grinch’s appeal is its lack of it. “There’s something taboo about thinking he’s sexy,” says Keaghlan Ashley, 32, a prosthetic makeup artist in Anaheim, California, who works with Mr. Drastal was working on his Grinch photo shoot. “Personally I don’t find him attractive, but I’m also a queer woman. I don’t know if I would feel the same if it was a femme Grinch.”
