LOS ANGELES - Cinema has plenty of classic couples - Hepburn and Tracy, Bogart and Bacall, Brad and Angie - but few are as ageless or as lovable as Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.
The charming amphibian and his porcine paramour are reunited on the big screen for the eighth time in Muppets Most Wanted. In this Disney caper, the Muppets fall into the clutches of the world’s No. 1 criminal, Constantine, who, with the exception of a facial mole and a vaguely Eastern European accent, bears a striking resemblance to Kermit.
After a case of mistaken identity leads to Kermit’s imprisonment in a Siberian gulag run by Tina Fey’s warden Nadya, Constantine - disguised as the Muppets’ frontman - travels with the gang to major European capitals to pull a series of heists with the help ofhis second in command, Dominic Badguy (it’s pronounced “Bad-gee”), played by Ricky Gervais, posing as an international tour manager.
Most Wanted arrives as a follow-up to 2011’s The Muppets, which returned Jim Henson’s foam-and-felt superstars to theaters for the first time in more than a decade and introduced a new Muppet, Walter. Written by Nicholas Stoller and star Jason Segel, and directed by James Bobin, that film grossed $88 million at the box office and won an Oscar for Bret McKenzie, the Flight of the Conchords comedian, who penned songs for the musical.
It also helped bring the Muppets to the attention of a new generation. “I have a whole new army of fans now at my disposal. I just say the word and they’ll come running,” Miss Piggy said.
“Whatever that word is, don’t say it right now becausewe’re in a small room,” Kermit the Frog responded.
Bobin and Stoller wrote the script for the sequel - McKenzie also returned to write numbers such as the gleefully selfaware opening song “We’re Doing a Sequel” - with an eye toward maintaining Muppet tradition (puns, fourth-wall breaking, celebrity cameos and other assorted silliness) while simultaneously expanding the scope of the story.
The film was shot primarily in England last spring, and Kermit the Frog described the experience as a creatively satisfying one.
“It was different,” he said. “The first one we did with James was wonderful, but he was just getting his feet wet.”
“This movie is 100 times better,” Miss Piggy said.
Such candor is a rare thing in Hollywood, but Kermit and Piggy aren’t conventional stars. Neither is Gervais, the confrontational comedian bestknown for boundary-pushing TV comedies such as The Office and Extras, who joined the famed Muppets duo for a quick chat about the new movie recently at a Beverly Hills hotel. An edited version of the conversation follows.
Q: Ricky, many comedians cite the Muppets as an inspiration. Were they a creative influence for you?
Ricky Gervais: I didn’t realize until doing this movie the obvious profound effect they’d had on me. I think they’re the same as I tried to do on Extras. They would take celebrities and make them these divas or egomaniacs, twisted versions of themselves, being brought down a peg or two by a crowd of normal people who didn’t care that they were celebrities. That’s what I did in Extras, but clearly, they did it first, 30 years before.
But the thing I love about the Muppets - and this is genuine - is that they’re optimistic.As much as people think that I’m some sort of shock jock or a cynic, I’m really not. I love people who fail and get back up and brush themselves off and start again. I love that quality. I loved it from Laurel and Hardy. Everything I’ve done has had that - they failed, but they were trying their best.
That’s these guys really - not (Miss Piggy) so much really, but this guy (points to Kermit the Frog), this man is the heart and soul of humanity.
Miss Piggy: I like to see people pick themselves back up. And I like to help them do that by cutting them down to start with.
Q: How do you prepare for the role? Did you go back and look at great Muppet villains of the past?
RG: I think I said, “I assume you want me to do the smarmy English git act?” And James went, “Exactly.” That was it … I loved turning up and saying the lines that I rememberedand making the other ones up. Honestly, it was a breeze for me.
MP: Was there a script for this movie?
RG: I didn’t read it. I knew the gist of it.
Q: Did you study classic heist films? Do you have a favorite from the genre?
RG: I like The Score.
KTF: The Score is good.
MP: Gambit, going back to 1966. Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine.
KTF: You are such a film buff. I had no idea.
MP: A mega-star like myself has to watch a movie here and there.
KTF: Are you sure you didn’t just Google that before the interview? I had no idea you would have known that.
KTG: We did it already (with 1981’s The Great Muppet Caper). This is sort of our second big caper movie.
RG: He’s saying they ran out of ideas 33 years ago.
MovieStyle, Pages 34 on 03/21/2014