Barney & Friends is certainly one of the most scorned of kids’ TV shows, yet the purple dinosaur was beloved to small children all over the world. The guy who inhabited Barney from 10 years is still a fan as well. David Joyner, who played the friendly dinosaur from 1991 to 2001, revealed to Business Insider what life was like inside that purple suit. He gets a bit more mystical than you might expect:
There’s a lot of psychic energy in my family, and there’s a lot of clairvoyance. And a lot of times, with me, if I’m trying to figure out a situation, I’ll dream about it.
Well the night before the audition, I had this dream. And in this dream, Barney passes out. And I have to give Barney mouth-to-mouth resuscitation… And then it hits me. I had to breathe life into Barney in my dream. If I go into this audition and breathe life into this character… So, of course, they called me and asked if I would be Barney. And I said, “Of course.” I pretty much already knew that I was going to be Barney. But it was great getting that phone call.
Joyner does admit that lumbering around in a 70-pound suit was pretty cumbersome, as well as extremely sweaty.