Dana Carvey Recalls Praying After 9/11 While Dressed as Turtle Man for ‘Master of Disguise’

By Radhamely De Leon
Published April 6, 2023, 11:38 a.m. ET

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Dana Carvey

Master of Disguise actor Dana Carvey finally cleared up a bizarre story that went viral on Twitter this week.

“There’s a controversy involving me going around,” Carvey hinted at the top of Wednesday’s (April 5) Fly On The Wall podcast episode.

In discussion with his co-host David Spade, Carvey talked about a “very strange” moment he had on set of Master of Disguise after 9/11.

“It’s kind of a sensitive topic, but after 9/11 I was shooting a movie called Master of Disguise,” he said. “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.”

Spade noted that the rumor circulating on social media specified Carvey was “shooting actively” and in full costume and prosthetics when news of the 9/11 attacks broke, which turned out not to be the case.

“What happened was they obfuscated it,” Carvey explained. “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 really strange.'”

Spade noted that it was “very ridiculous” that the story was circulating so widely. “Did you have the shell on or off?” he asked.

Carvey replied, “They might’ve gotten the shell off, but they didn’t get the turtle head or the turtle lip off. They couldn’t get it all off.”

This rumor has cropped up multiple times over the years, and has even been disproved before.

Master of Disguise director Perry Andelin Blake told Defector in 2021 that he and his staff went to his office that day to watch the news as the attacks happened, after which everyone went home for the day. After some discussions, they decided to pause production for two weeks. They had that moment of silence on their first day back on set, after which they shot the Turtle Club scene.

“I’m the director, so I’m the leader of this group of people. I felt it was a little weird to be making this funny, silly kids’ movie in the wake of this huge national tragedy,” Blake said. “So I felt like I needed to say something. I gave a little speech, I guess you would call it.”

Blake roughly recalled the speech he gave before leading a moment of silence: “It seems weird that we’re starting to work on this movie, but I think if there’s some time that we maybe need a bit of humor in our society and in our country—and especially for the kids of our country, this is probably such a hard time for them—there’s something good about us coming together to make a movie that can make kids laugh and bring a little bit of happiness. So let’s try to do that.”

This anecdote was on its way to becoming a Hollywood urban legend if Carvey hadn’t taken the time to address it.

Knowing the internet, it’s only a matter of time before the bizarre story rears its ugly head again somewhere on social media.