Frank Oz has done a whole lot more than just be the voice of Yoda over the years. He was Jim Henson’s right-hand man back when The Muppets were at their height of popularity, providing the voices and puppetry to characters like Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle, Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover. Seriously, Oz is the voice of many people’s childhoods.
In an interview with The Guardian, he talked about how sad he was that Disney seems no longer interested to bring him back on under any capacity for future Muppets projects.
“I’d love to do the Muppets again but Disney doesn’t want me, and Sesame Street hasn’t asked me for 10 years. They don’t want me because I won’t follow orders and I won’t do the kind of Muppets they believe in. The soul’s not there. The soul is what makes things grow and be funny. But I miss them and love them.”
He also went on to discuss issues with how Disney treats The Muppets now and a bit on the original deal that he thinks is “probably what killed” Jim Henson. “It made him sick. Eisner was trying to get Sesame Street, too, which Jim wouldn’t allow. But Jim was not a dealer, he was an artist, and it was destroying him, it really was.”
“There’s an inability for corporate America to understand the value of something they bought. They never understood, with us, it’s not just about the puppets, it’s about the performers who love each other and have worked together for many years”
Frank Oz’s latest project was as a director on Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself. It seems unlikely he will be returning to The Muppets anytime soon.
