This Is What the Actor Who Played Cindy Lou Who Looks Like Now
"[I] get the giant reaction of, 'I can't believe that's the same girl in 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas.'"
Twenty years ago, How the Grinch Stole Christmas premiered in theaters with Jim Carrey as the Grinch—in an absolutely terrifying costume—and Taylor Momsen as Cindy Lou Who, the little girl with the wacky hair who loves Christmas. Now, Momsen is 27 years old and is no longer acting, but she has nothing but good memories about making the film. In a new interview with Today, Momsen looked back on her time making How the Grinch Stole Christmas and shared what she's up to today. Read on to hear her experience, and for another child star all grown up, check out What the Little Girl From Those '90s Pepsi Commercials Looks Like Now.
"I do remember having a lot of fun on that set," Momsen said. She explained that she got to do a lot of her own stunts, which included falling through a trap door. "I was young, so I thought all of that stuff was so much fun." And even as a child, she was impressed by Carrey as an actor. "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.'"
Though there were some parts Momsen didn't enjoy—like wearing fake teeth, because she hated the taste of the glue that held them in place—she said the experience of making the movie helped her find her true passion: recording music. Momsen's favorite memory from set was getting to record the song "Where Are You, Christmas?" in a studio with the late composer James Horner.
"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," Momsen said. "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.'"
Following her retirement from acting when she was still a teen, music has now become Momsen's career. Read on to find out more about her post-Grinch life, and for more on Christmas movies, check out The Best Christmas Movies of All Time, According to Critics.
Read the original article on Best Life.
Her career as a child actor took off after How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Following How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Momsen had roles in three movies in 2002: She played Julie in the Mel Gibson movie We Were Soldiers; the president's daughter in the Spy Kids sequel, Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams; and Gretel in a live-action version of Hansel & Gretel. And for more on child actors these days, here are The Biggest Child Actors Ever, Then and Now.
But, other than Cindy Lou Who, Momsen is best known as Jenny Humphrey.
In 2007, Momsen began starring on the TV series Gossip Girl as Jenny Humphrey, a young teen from Brooklyn, who struggled to fit in with her wealthy Manhattan classmates. While the show was still very popular, Momsen famously left the series after Season 4, when she was 18 years old, to focus on her music career.
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She's been the lead singer of a rock band for the past decade.
Momsen formed the band The Pretty Reckless in 2009, not long before she left Gossip Girl. And while there was a major lineup change in 2010, Momsen has been with the band ever since. They've released three albums with the fourth, Death by Rock and Roll, due to be released in Feb. 2021.
"In a lot of ways this album really feels like a rebirth for the band," Momsen said in her Today interview. "We went through a lot of loss and a lot of tragedy in the past couple of years, and this album is really a culmination of all of that."
And while Momsen made a successful switch to music, that isn't the case for everyone—here are 15 Actors Whose Singing Careers You Completely Forgot.
She gets asked about Cindy Lou Who to this day.
"People bring up The Grinch to me quite a bit, obviously around Christmas," Momsen told Today. "It's certainly funny now when people don't realize that I played Cindy Lou Who and they might know me from my music or something, and then put two and two together and you get the giant reaction of 'I can't believe that's the same girl in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.' And I get a huge kick out of that." And for more on classic Christmas movies, This Is the Single Most Popular Holiday Movie of All Time, Survey Says.
