Dana Carvey, Former Saturday Night Live Cast Member, Discloses That He Was Offered Role as Prominent Political Figure on the Show.
Dana Carvey has revealed in a recent interview that SNL creator Lorne Michaels had reached out to him to take the role of Joe Biden, right before he withdrew from the 2024 election. Appearing on Fly on the Wall, Carvey stated that Michaels said that he was going to get him back on Saturday Night Live even after Biden was out,’ then joking that Carvey could return dressed up in a ghost form of the president.
In the 50th season premiere episode, Carvey reprised the role of Joe Biden and remembered how the executive producer Michaels would ask him in June if he would be up for five episodes as Biden. Even after Biden dropped out of the race, Michaels kept pushing for Carvey.
Talking about the SNL creator’s enthusiasm, he said, “Lorne was like a dog with a bone. He’s still like, ‘You’ll come out. Maybe you’ll appear as a ghost or something.’ He just wanted me to come out anyway. So then I came out.”
Ever the impressionist, Carvey was generating his version of Biden on a podcast and wanted to see the SNL writers to “run them through the Biden hooks, the Biden walk, ‘Can’t believe it’s not butter,’ all this stuff.” He presented a version of Biden with many of Biden’s body language and catchphrases.
He was more than pleased with the fact that writers used a lot of his suggestions in tailoring the Saturday Night Live Season 50 premiere cold open sketch. He thought that they gave him the upper hand and let him actually become the character of Biden that he wished to be. Some of the funniest moments during Carvey’s debut as Biden was actually one of his spontaneous ad-libs that the audiences appreciated the most.
Some of the younger and rookie cast members were taken aback by Carvey’s sudden improv. The SNL veteran recalled them being adorable saying, “The current cast members, they’re all adorable people. They’re young and everything. They’re like, ‘I didn’t know you could ad-lib at read-through!'”
Dana Carvey confirmed that he will be very much active in Saturday Night Live’s milestone 50th season. This will include more attempts at his fun president portrayal for the long-running sketch comedy series.
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