Early this week, Ain't It Cool News of the AIC network, sent out their interviewer extraordinaire, Capone, to catch up with Frank Oz in Chicago, where they chatted out the highlights, problems, and history of Frank's career.
"As I look at it now," Frank tells Capone, "I realize I'm part of history in certain ways with 'Sesame Street' and 'Saturday Night Live' and 'Star Wars' and 'The Muppet Show.' It's odd, because for me, I was just doing gigs."
Which was, of course, how it all started; with small gigs on a plethora of programs. "That's what we were known for at first. We were an act in the beginning. We'd go from the Perry Como show to the Bob Hope show to the Johnny Caron to Jack Parr...to awards shows. We did the Emmys and the Oscars, the Grammys, we did it all."
Yes, he sure did do it all, even when sometimes he shouldn't have... "My instincts were saying, 'Don't do a big movie'," Frank explains as the subject of Stepford Wives inevitably occurs. "I had a very strong viewpoint to do the movie, but I didn't expect such huge stars. When the stars came, everything kind of ballooned up. My original instincts were to make it more intimate. The problem was that it got so big that my instincts to make a small movie didn't mesh with how big it was getting, and I was losing my way a little bit... I should have brought it all down and said, I'm sorry, I know we have all these huge stars but I don't care, I want to do something intimate."
Which brings us right back to the present.
Death at a Funeral is released on the 17th August, directed by Frank Oz, and starring Alan Tudyk and Peter Dinklage. "I laughed out loud and I was touched by it," Frank says of the movie script, as he went on to discuss comedy in general. "The thing about comedy is that people think of comedy as only one thing. You can have high wit; you can have low buffoonery; you can have puns or physical comedy....The only thing that is a mainstay in my opinion...is my being honest to the world in which we are creating. "
And of course, no interview worth his salt (and your salt is being trucked to you by over-night delivery, Capone, dear) can go by without asking the all-important question: "What was it about the relationship between Kermit and Ms. Piggy that people seemed to cling to and identify with?"
"There's some sort of recognizable affectionate tension in any relationship," Frank tells us. "I think the complexity of the pushes and pulls in any relationship, in part, is what people saw. But the truth is, I don't know. People saw themselves in them."
There's more about Frank, there's more about Death at a Funeral, Sesame Street, Star Wars conventions and Grover in this in-depth article at Ain't It Cool News, until then, let's just remember that when a person, or persons, still see themselves within the complex relationship of Pig and Frog...there is something going right with the world.
"As I look at it now," Frank tells Capone, "I realize I'm part of history in certain ways with 'Sesame Street' and 'Saturday Night Live' and 'Star Wars' and 'The Muppet Show.' It's odd, because for me, I was just doing gigs."
Which was, of course, how it all started; with small gigs on a plethora of programs. "That's what we were known for at first. We were an act in the beginning. We'd go from the Perry Como show to the Bob Hope show to the Johnny Caron to Jack Parr...to awards shows. We did the Emmys and the Oscars, the Grammys, we did it all."
Yes, he sure did do it all, even when sometimes he shouldn't have... "My instincts were saying, 'Don't do a big movie'," Frank explains as the subject of Stepford Wives inevitably occurs. "I had a very strong viewpoint to do the movie, but I didn't expect such huge stars. When the stars came, everything kind of ballooned up. My original instincts were to make it more intimate. The problem was that it got so big that my instincts to make a small movie didn't mesh with how big it was getting, and I was losing my way a little bit... I should have brought it all down and said, I'm sorry, I know we have all these huge stars but I don't care, I want to do something intimate."Which brings us right back to the present.
Death at a Funeral is released on the 17th August, directed by Frank Oz, and starring Alan Tudyk and Peter Dinklage. "I laughed out loud and I was touched by it," Frank says of the movie script, as he went on to discuss comedy in general. "The thing about comedy is that people think of comedy as only one thing. You can have high wit; you can have low buffoonery; you can have puns or physical comedy....The only thing that is a mainstay in my opinion...is my being honest to the world in which we are creating. "
And of course, no interview worth his salt (and your salt is being trucked to you by over-night delivery, Capone, dear) can go by without asking the all-important question: "What was it about the relationship between Kermit and Ms. Piggy that people seemed to cling to and identify with?"
"There's some sort of recognizable affectionate tension in any relationship," Frank tells us. "I think the complexity of the pushes and pulls in any relationship, in part, is what people saw. But the truth is, I don't know. People saw themselves in them."
There's more about Frank, there's more about Death at a Funeral, Sesame Street, Star Wars conventions and Grover in this in-depth article at Ain't It Cool News, until then, let's just remember that when a person, or persons, still see themselves within the complex relationship of Pig and Frog...there is something going right with the world.
1 comment:
Hi! I hope you have more posts coming...this is a great blog and I'd love to read more!
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