Turtle, turtle! Dana Carvey confirmed that he was dressed as Master of Disguise’s Turtle Man for an impromptu 9/11 prayer on the set.
There are a number of films that anecdotally have links to the tragedy of the September 11th attacks: Spider-Man’s teaser was pulled due to showing the Twin Towers; Spike Lee’s 25th Hour was the first film to even acknowledge the attacks; a True Lies sequel was outright canceled. And then, of course, there’s The Master of Disguise, the movie where Dana Carvey dressed up as a turtle.
On a recent episode of his and David Spade’s podcast Fly on the Wall (which we highly recommend for Saturday Night Live buffs and people who can’t get enough of Carvey’s 30+-year-old George Bush impression), the comedian confirmed that the cast and crew of The Master of Disguise held a moment of silence and prayer for the victims of 9/11…except Dana Carvey was still in his Turtle Man garb. “We took an appropriate time off and went back to shooting and I was playing–if you’ve seen the movie, kids–the Turtle Man, with a bald cap and a weird thing on my lip and a big green shell outfit…I was in [the costume] all that day and then they said, ‘We’re going to have a group prayer about 9/11.’ And I couldn’t get the thing–I would’ve held everyone for a half hour getting all that prosthetic makeup off–so, as I remember it, everyone else was [wearing] civilian clothes, I’m dressed as the Turtle Man, with a bald head, and I’m holding hands and I’m lowering my head and praying and I just thought at the moment: ‘This is very strange.’”
Stranger still is the Turtle Man’s legacy, if we want to call it that. The Master of Disguise may hold a 1% on Rotten Tomatoes and be considered one of the worst movies ever made, but Dana Carvey’s Turtle Man character is unforgettable. We’re not saying that’s a good thing, but if you saw the TV spots even once, you know the line, “Am I not turtley enough for the turtle club. Turtle, turtle, turtle!” Fortunately, Carvey would rather give us Wayne’s World 3 than The Master of Disguise 2.
Have you seen The Master of Disguise? Why do you think Dana Carvey’s turtle character has endured in its own strange little way?
Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/dana-carvey-confirms-he-was-in-master-of-disguises-turtle-costume-for-9-11-prayer/
