SNL Behind the Scenes: 12 Wild Stories From the Nearly 50 Years of Saturday Night Live

The Mask of Jeff Daniels

Before Jeff Daniels hosted the Oct. 5, 1991 episode, he did something many hosts do: went into the makeup department to get a face mask made.

As SNL star David Spade explained in his terrific memoir, Almost Interesting, “if the makeup department wants to make a dummy that looks like you, or there needs to be a shot of your head blowing up, a plaster-like substance is poured on your face to create a mold that can be used to sculpt a replica.”

The process involves placing a stocking cap over the person’s head, and inserting two straws so they can breathe through the nose as the substance hardens over the face. It usually takes 15 minutes.

But Daniels’ mask had hardened so much it wouldn’t come off, Spade explained. He added that Lorne Michaels had a plastic surgeon hurry to 30 Rock, and that the plaster was peeled off Daniels’ face. At one point the surgeon needed to use an X-Acto knife, cutting Daniels’ eyebrows and eyelashes. But the mask finally came off, and Daniels went through with the episode the next night.

“If you watch that old show, you can see his eyebrows were painted on,” Spade wrote.

That’s Daniels with Dana Carvey, left, at the start of the episode. We honestly wouldn’t have noticed.

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