Lorne Michaels promised to “reinvent” Donald Trump for the 50th season of Saturday Night Live this fall. And now we know, according to SNL alum Dana Carvey, that transformation included a new fat suit.
“They’re trying to sort of update Trump a little bit,” Carvey explained on his Fly On The Wall podcast with David Spade Friday. Before that, the show’s Trump just had “some padding,” but on the newest season, “They gave him a [“bigger, whoop-dee-doo”] fat suit.”
Carvey, who made a surprise appearance to play Joe Biden, revealed what he saw backstage as makeup and wardrobe prepped the show’s resident Trump impressionist, James Austin Johnson. “They went next level with James Austin Johnson about Trump,” Carvey said, revealing that there had even been a hair change. “They put a bald cap on [him] because Trump is thinning in the back a little bit.”
Spade and Carvey also discussed the premiere’s debut of several highly anticipated impressions, including Maya Rudolph’s reprisal of Kamala Harris, Jim Gaffigan’s Tim Walz, and Andy Samberg’s Doug Emhoff. Carvey had nothing but good things to say about all the comedians’ work on the show.
“Everyone loves pretty much whatever Maya does,” Carvey said, as he gushed about her being “a lot of fun” and having “a lot of charisma,” and shared that it’s “fun being out there with her.” Carvey added that Gaffigan was “kind of my protégé because he wanted to know about the ropes” of the show, since he’d not only never hosted but never “been in the building.” In the end though, Carvey said, “he crushed it.”
