If the name Taylor Momsen doesn’t ring a bell, then right off the bat, you’re obviously not a fan of the rock band The Pretty Reckless. However, there’s still a good chance you’ll recognize her as Cindy Lou Who from the 2000 film adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas. While the Jim Carrey-led movie arguably remains her best known film outing, it also unfortunately resulted in her having “alienating” experiences during her childhood.
Momsen, who also starred as Jenny Humphrey on the Gossip Girl cast, reflected on the unintended consequences of working on How The Grinch Stole Christmas while appearing on the Podcrushed podcast (via People). The ex-actress told host Penn Badgely, who starred with her on Gossip Girl as Jenny’s brother Dan, about she was bullied over her time as the Christmas movie’s secondary protagonist, saying:
Making friends was always challenging for me. First of all, The Grinch changed my life in a multitude of ways — one of them being I was made fun of relentlessly. Every time I would start a new school or go somewhere else, I don't even think the kids knew my name. I was just 'Grinch girl.' Not even the character name [Cindy Lou Who], just Grinch girl. I got used to it, but it was alienating.
It’s unfortunate that Taylor Momsen was made fun of at such a young age simply because she starred in How The Grinch Stole Christmas, although she’s far from the only child actor to experience this. Another example that comes to mind is Jake Lloyd, who was picked on for playing Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. In Momsen’s case, the moving around made it especially bad, as each new location she moved to resulted in a fresh round of bullying.
The good news is that by the time Momsen hit middle school, she finally started making friends since that was the “first [full] year” where she was in school, and together they formed a garage band. Alas, that group disbanded once she had to move to New York to work on Gossip Girl, but it didn’t long for her to start fresh on the musical front again, with The Pretty Reckless forming in 2009. Meanwhile, Momsen’s last film appearance was in 2008’s Spy School, and her last acting gig in general was guest-starring as Jenny in Gossip Girl Season 6. (In another reality, maybe she would have been selected to play Hannah Montana over Miley Cyrus.)
Taylor Momesen and Jim Carrey were joined in How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Bill Irwin, Jeffrey Tambor, Molly Shannon and Christine Baranski, among others. While the movie was met with mixed critical reviews, it became the sixth highest-grossing movie of 2000 with its $345.8 million haul. The Ron Howard-directed movie later won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and was also nominated in the Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design categories.
While How The Grinch Stole Christmas isn’t currently available to stream ahead of the yuletide season, it can be purchased or rented on digital platforms, including through your Amazon Prime Video subscription. Otherwise, keep track of movies left to come out this year with our 2023 release schedule, or use the 2024 release schedule to get a jump on next year’s cinematic entertainment.
