Empire Australasia - May 2018

GETTY, PHOTOFEST

whatever’s necessary to try to be the very
best and be loved, even through the pain.
I remember Gilda [Radner] was a guest
star on The Muppet Show and she said to
me, “I wish I was more like Miss Piggy.”
Piggy came out during women’s lib and
those moments where she loses patience
and karate-chops somebody, I think that
part of it made women go, “Oh boy, I
wish I could do that.”

Sesame Street and The Muppet Show
became huge hits. Less successful was
your stint on Saturday Night Live —
John Belushi told a reporter he wanted to
shoot the Muppets with a gun...
Their humour was different to our
humour. Muppets is very high-energy
and SNL is more laidback. We were
taking time away from the cast members.
And [the SNL writers] had to write the
sketches for some reason, which made
everyone frustrated. As time wore on, it
became clear we shouldn’t have been on
there. But John and I, Danny [Aykroyd]
and everybody, we all got along great.

Your cameo in The Blues Brothers seems

to prove there was no bad blood.

That’s my claim to fame, yeah, the soiled

prophylactic. John Landis was in

Germany about a year ago and sent me

a postcard: the front was me as the cop

holding up a condom, with the words,

“One soiled.” [Laughs] It was bizarre.

You segued from your Muppet years into

directing ilms such as Little Shop Of

Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and

Bowinger. You also worked with Marlon

Brando on The Score, which was

apparently a nightmare.

That was complicated. Marlon, I thought

he was sweet and a humanist. I went to

his house at the beginning and had a two-

hour meeting with him. He was a little

devil — he would test you all the time.

But he agreed to a particular way to do

the character — he wanted to make him

homosexual. I said, “Okay, that’s ine.”

But I had just done a ilm called In And

Out about homosexuality and wanted to

make sure I was respectful and not

over-the top. He assured me it wouldn’t

be. Then he came in and essentially was

over-the-top. I said, “I just can’t do this.”

I may have been a bit too strong, but I

had to be, because I didn’t want that to

hijack my ilm. From then on, he hated

me. He hated my guts, you know?

Do you feel he didn’t take you seriously

because of the Muppets? It’s been reported

that he called you ‘Miss Piggy’ in front of

the crew...

No, that was bullshit. Just like the whole

story about him not wearing his pants on

set. All crap. He did come in with his pants

off, and rightfully so: it was 90 degrees

Fahrenheit in Montreal, he was playing the

piano and had the wardrobe next to him,

so when it was time to shoot he put the

pants on. And you wonder why Brando

didn’t like the press. Actually he was quite

enthralled with the Muppets. I sent him

some Bert and Ernie tapes because he

really wanted to see them. He was just very

much against authority. It wasn’t personal.

Talking of cinematic icons, it was a joy to

see Yoda back in puppet form in The Last

Jedi. How did that come about?

Well, several years ago Rian [Johnson],

who I didn’t know at that time, came to

me and asked if I’d be interested in doing

Yoda again. I said, “Sure.” Because I

thought he meant just the voice, which is

very easy for me. We had a good talk and

I really liked him. Then a week later I

understood that they expected the puppet.

I said to Kathy [Kennedy], “Do you have

any idea what you’re getting yourself

involved in?” But it was just wonderful. I

got to work with all these craftsmen I’d

worked with, in some cases, 30 years ago

on Little Shop Of Horrors. When it’s CG,

I don’t have a relationship with anybody.

I’m alone. But with the puppet I have a

relationship with all these people and

they feed me. And it was magical to be

back with Mark [Hamill] again. He is a

huge part of why Yoda works.

Have you kept a lot of stuff from your

Muppet days?

I have about six huge boxes of them. We

have something called Show And Tell on

the Muppet Guys Talking website, where

the four of us [Jerry Nelson passed away in

2012] bring out something from 30 years

ago and talk about it. We don’t even know

what the other person has, so it’s really fun.

Have you come across Harvey Kneeslapper

in one of those boxes?

If I did, I would burn him. NICK DE SEMLYEN

MUPPET GUYS TALKING IS AVAILABLE TO

DOWNLOAD FROM MUPPETGUYSTALKING.COM

Clockwise from top:

Daniel Seagren and

Jim Henson work Ernie

while Oz works Bert for

an episode of Sesame

Street; Audrey II from

Little Shop Of Horrors

(1986) directed by Oz;

1980’s The Empire

Strikes Back with Luke

Skywalker (Mark

Hamill) and Yoda

(voiced by Oz).