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The man who played Barney for 10 years reveals the worst thing about it

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The man who played Barney the Dinosaur for over 10 years has revealed the worst part of donning the purple suit.

Actor David Joyner first played Barney in 1990, and made his last TV appearance as the dinosaur in 2003. He has subsequently had roles in TV shows such as Shameless US, Veep, and ER.

On Monday the Mail Online revealed the worst parts of the role.

According to Joyner, he was the second choice for the role, after the actor before him pulled out, saying she was unable to cope with the pressures of the role.

Inside I'm nodding up and down, it's hot, I'm sweating, but I've got props and then on top of that, the voice is talking so I have to make sure my nod and my mannerisms are going with the voice.

Barney was voiced by Bob West, so Joyner had to time his movements with the voice work.

He added that on top of providing a first class performance, Barney is performed under some extremely testing conditions.

On top of that there's kids, there's lighting. You can't shadow their light.

Temperatures in the suit would get as high as 48 degrees Celsius, and the entire six foot costume weighed 70 pounds.

There's also set design. There's props on the set. So you can't be walking through the set destroying things... and of course Barney's head doesn't turn because it's all once piece so you have to portray emotion coming from this character as you're talking and then also wanting to show different gestures and mannerisms that's not gonna take the character out of character, because Barney still has certain nuances.

Despite these conditions, he explained that he did enjoy playing Barney.

On the inside, it almost to me seemed like I was playing the drums… But the key of it all was having fun because if it wasn’t for the fact that you’re having so much fun and so much joy then it could have been a cumbersome situation

HT Mail Online

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