"Daisy Duck Was Knocked Out Cold And Pressed Charges," And 15 Other Shocking Disney Park Employee Secrets And Stories
Have you ever wondered what it's like to be one of the actors at a Disney park?
Well recently, Reddit user u/nvoltage1017 asked in r/AskReddit: "Former actors at Disney parks, what’s the weirdest thing that happened to you while you were in character?" Here's what they shared:
Obviously, we can’t 100% confirm all of these stories, but these people are supposedly speaking from their own experiences as alleged former employees.
1."I was a 'mouse height' performer at Disney World around 2013. I can unfortunately confirm groping happened from time to time, and it was incredibly uncomfortable. We were trained to move away if we could and signal to the character attendants to escort the guest away if it happened. One time, some guy thought it appropriate to pick me up completely off the ground in a bear hug. The head pushed back and, because the inside is connected to us with head gear and a chin strap, my neck bent back with it, and it hurt like hell."
2."I dated a girl that played one of the fairies for the Tinker Bell place. The weirdest thing to happen to her was when a woman with a 4-year-old little girl was all excited to get a picture with Tinker Bell, but Tinker Bell was busy, so my ex volunteered to do pictures and entertain the little girl while they waited. The woman was super rude about that idea, saying that she was here to see Tinker Bell and not 'off-brand' fairies. So, just shrugging it off, my ex moved on. A bit later, she heard a commotion and saw that Tinker Bell was obviously upset, and security showed up. Apparently, this woman was Tinker Bell's biological mom and had taken her granddaughter to Disney just to violate the restraining order against her."
3."Somebody once offered me $400 to have sex with him while in my Goofy costume *awkward Goofy laugh*."
4."The worst thing I ever heard was the time one of the characters was overcome by heat in 95 degree weather and vomited inside the suit, splattering the inside of the suit's head with their half-digested lunch. They had to walk a long distance back to the dressing rooms breathing the super-heated vomit air the entire way."
5."I used to play Tinker Bell, and the weirdest thing is that the dads low-key hit on you. Kids are kids — they do weird stuff but don’t mean it. The adults, however, know they’re being weird and, for some reason, just don’t care. Like, don’t talk about my looks in front of your kids or try to cop a feel! This happens so often that we had guards all over the place just in case someone got handsy."
6."The weirdest thing for sure was when the super rich Saudi Prince/investor came over and we had to do basically anything he said. One time, he wanted the whole duck family in his suite, so we literally had Huey, Louie, and Dewey shipped over from Florida since Paris didn’t have the costumes. I was Scrooge. We had to go to his suite overlooking Main Street one morning and hand out random certificates to his friends for achievements including 'being at Disneyland Paris.'"
"Another time, he threw a massive party in the conference room of one of the hotels and requested a ton of characters. One of the most surreal moments of my life to date was dancing around a room to 'Eeeverybody, eeeverybody, eeeverybody wants to beee a cat, hallelujah!!!' with dozens of totally random Disney characters while fake snow came down from the ceiling and disco lights flashed. Meanwhile, the Saudi Prince and his crew were all just sitting at tables and watching us while we sweated for their entertainment. Good times."
7."My ex-wife was in the character department at Disney World years ago, and she was always getting injured by guests. From macho men wanting to see how strong of a grip Mickey had to grabbing hold of Donald's bill and yanking really hard, etc. etc. They'd pull noses, beaks, ears, and could really hurt people."
8."I was playing Goofy inside a restaurant, and I got swarmed by a hoard of around 10 kids. Unfortunately, while I was playing around with them, the inner hood below the mask slipped over my eyes, and I was completely blinded. We had assistants around who we could signal for help by flapping our arms, but the kids had made it a game of attaching themselves to both my arms, and to raise them, I would have had to lift three or four kids per arm. I found myself blinded and completely rooted to the spot, unable to ask for help. Nobody realized I was in trouble. I spent a solid 10-15 minutes in that sort of limbo, reflecting on the life decisions that had led me there, before the assistant came to help."
9."I was Timon one day when some massive dude just suddenly picked me up and then push-pressed me above his head. Timon’s costume has a huge tail and feet, so I was surprised the guy managed to get me up there."
10."A lot of women wanted to post in sexually suggestive ways for photos. I had a girl walk up, ask for a picture, and then turn around, face away from me, bend over, and put her butt up against my crotch. I just froze and threw up a thumbs up."
11."I was never an actor there, but when I was a kid at Disney World in the '70s, I watched Chip get into a fistfight with a young twenty-something guy. The guy's girlfriend wanted him to take a picture with Chip and Dale, but he didn't want to. Chip jokingly grabbed him in a headlock, and his girlfriend snapped the photo. When Chip let go, the guy came up swinging. Dale had to jump in and break them up as Chip started swinging back!"
12."A person dressed as Daisy Duck got tackled by a guest and was knocked out cold. When she recovered, she pressed charges."
13."The worst nights for the characters were high school senior nights and the religious group nights. It was always just a bunch of unruly teens with little to no supervision. No one wanted to work those shifts. Ever."
14."My mom was a character actor at Disneyland back in the day. One time, they were testing a new headpiece for the Seven Dwarfs costumes, and my mom wore one of them out on a march with Snow White. As a Dwarf, your head was inside their hat, your face on their stomach, etc. Being Anaheim, it was really hot that summer day — as they were going around following Snow White, a little kid saw my mom — "Doc" — and ran up to give her a hug. As he was hugging her, the plastic that made up the face started melting inwards, and the child started screaming 'I killed Doc! I killed Doc!' in hysterics. Character handlers rushed my mom off through one of the secret passages and got her out of the costume before the plastic could melt onto her. I always thought it was a fun story, but I'm curious how much it screwed up that kid."
15."I was playing Grumpy in the parade when my head frame thing broke, and so Grumpy’s head was just teetering precariously on my head the whole time. I could hardly see a thing. That was fun."
And laaaaaaastly:
16."I was never a cast member, but either Mickey or Minnie cut a very audible fart while posing with me and my wife. It must've been awful inside that Dutch oven of a costume."
Answers have been edited for length and/or clarity.
