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This week I’m flying to New York to sit down with Yoda.
Yoda’s in New York now?
Well, Yoda’s in our hearts, but Frank Oz is in New York.
Oh.
Checked out I need to get my heart then.
Frank?!
[Laughing]
I’m so good at it.
This is The Star Wars Show.
From the Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco, here’s your hosts, Andi and Anthony!
Hey there, welcome to the show, it’s a weekly show about a never ending war in the stars
and those who are stuck in the middle of it.
One day we’ll have Star Peace.
And on that day, we will be out of work.
To a war that will never end!
To Star Wars!
It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, so editor Frank, get the updated
graphics package ready.
Here we go.
Last week on Twitter, Ron Howard, the world’s #1 source for Solo: A Star Wars Story news
tweeted an image of a screen at Skywalker Ranch where he was reviewing visual FX for the movie.
He followed up that tweet the next day with a picture of him enjoying the final stages
of post production watching a screen with 10 familiar words on it.
But it wasn’t just Twitter that got a visit from the #1 Source for Solo news, Ron dropped
an image of Solo being mixed at Skywalker Sound on his Instagram account as well.
Scooped again by Ron Howard!
Come on, Ron Howard!
Stop coming for my job, you’ve already got a job!
Who does he know?
RIGHT?!
Anyway, the rest of us will have to find out what all of these cryptic tweets and Instagram
posts mean when Solo: A Star Wars story hits theaters 50 days from now on May 25th.
And while we’re talking about Solo, Solo actor as well as Star Wars show guest, Joonas Suotamo,
or as we know him, Chewbacca, will be making a celebrity guest appearance at
Star Wars: Galactic Nights on May 27th.
For more information about the one-night only event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando
check out Disneyworld.com/galacticnights.
Finally this week Webby nominations came out and Star Wars walked away with a couple of
nominations and a handful of honorees.
The noms went to StarWars.com for movie & film website, as well as our social channels for
content and marketing, with Star Wars: Jedi Challenges picking up noms in technical achievement
and best use of Augmented Reality for games/features.
Plus our Last Jedi red carpet livestream, Battlefront 2 trailer, and The Star Wars Show
also grabbed honoree positions for this year’s Webby’s.
Public voting is open right now at vote.webbyawards.com
We did it!
And for more breaking news from around the galaxy, check out Star Wars.com or the Star Wars app.
You’re watching The Star Wars Show!
The Star Wars Show presents Everything Is Important.
This week, Elan Sleazebaggano.
Limited to 13 seconds of screen time, Elan Sleazebaggano was the Outlander Club frequenting,
underground businessman, and Balosar of Coruscant who approached Obi-Wan Kenobi to sell him
some death sticks.
Wanna buy some death sticks?
However, thanks to Sleazebaggano’s weak character, Kenobi was able to use the Force
to get him to go home and rethink his life ending the conversation quickly which kept
Kenobi alert enough to react to the changeling Zam Wesell who was about to blast him in the back.
So if it wasn’t for Sleazebaggano leaving his drink, Obi-Wan might hasve sat next to
a more distracting club patron.
Like this guy, or this girl, or Anthony Daniels.
And with a distracted Jedi, the bounty hunter could’ve killed Obi-Wan, left Anakin without
a master, leaving the Republic in the dark about that whole clone thing.
So without Sleazebaggano, we wouldn’t have taken a trip to Dex’s Diner, witnessed the
epic rumble in the rain, broke Padme’s heart with the news of Anakin’s rampage sending
Obi-Wan to Mustafar to break up their friendship, and slice Anakin apart giving birth to Darth Vader.
Thanks, Sleazebaggano!
Noooooooo!
[Porg sounds]
I’m so excited to be sitting down with Frank Oz.
Most of our viewers will know you the best as Yoda.
But so many classic characters.
Fozzi Bear, Miss Piggy, Sam the Eagle, my personal favorite.
[Laughing]
But also a director of classic films like Little Shop of Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,
and you have a new documentary all about the process of making The Muppets.
Yeah and also the spirit in which we made it from Jim.
Victoria Labalme, my wife, conceived it and produced it.
She saw us guys having such a great time and she said the people need to see how people
worked together.
So we’re kind of showing the world how it is to work in a really hard way but a lot
of fun still.
If people are interested they can go to MuppetGuysTalking.com and then you can get the film there.
I think people who have been fans of the behind-the-scenes of the Star Wars films and The Muppets
kind of knew the sort of physical rigorousness and the kind of situations that you all put
yourselves in.
One thing that struck me when I came when I was 19-years-old, you have limitations with other people.
With Jim, no limitations at all.
If the vision is there and you want something then nothing stops you, you just do it.
And no matter how dangerous or uncomfortable or how many long hours you work, you just do it.
It feels like that sort of philosophy applied to George as well.
Oh yeah.
Can you tell me a little bit about how you got approached to be Yoda and to create Yoda?
Gary Kurtz, was it?
Yeah and George’s name went to Jim.
And Jim was both too busy and he also knew that was not what he did.
And he recommended me.
I was in my trailer in Los Angeles, we were shooting The Muppet movie, the first one,
and I think they showed me a lot of different sketches that could be Yoda.
And there was one that just nailed it.
I just, for some reason some characters take months or a year and this character I just…
I just got.
I don't know how.
I wanna talk about Dagobah and about those, kind of, first days.
Some of these physical setups can be very strange and unique.
Was there anything sort of strange and unique about Dagobah?
What were sort of the physical obstacles or performance obstacles that had to be built in?
There’s always obstacles.
That just comes with the territory.
So you’re always uncomfortable, you’re always in pain.
You just accept that and you work with it.
I guess the only obstacle for Mark and me, which was a man-made obstacle, was Kersh.
And I guess some people know it but not everybody.
In Yoda’s hut, Kersh decided to put snakes in the back.
There’s this frickin’ anaconda and we’re trying to work, you know, and this snake’s
behind us, about two or three snakes, and so that was kind of freaky.
That’s one of my favorite things.
We actually talk about that in the office quite a bit.
Yoda’s home with the snakes.
Yeah, yeah, that was Kersh.
You know, he was saying, “oh, it’s gonna be fine”.
But of course he’s not down there, you know.
Right.
Mark and I are there. [Laughing]
When the design and the creation of these puppets obviously all kind of operate in different ways.
They all have to be sort of performed in different ways.
Were there any sort of unique challenges to the actual mechanical aspect of Yoda?
Oh yeah.
As opposed to The Muppets?
The Muppets are done with one or two people.
With Yoda it was four people.
One does the eyes and the eyelids, there’s the ears, I did the mouth and the head and
the brow and the voice, and somebody does the left hand.
So as far as the mechanical stuff, the first time it was all cables.
That’s hard to do extraordinary, delicate, specific work when somebody else is doing
this with cables...
Right.
...off camera.
But that’s actually what happened this time with Rian.
Neal made a cabled controlled Yoda this time.
Before in the early days after we tried remote control but the cables were better.
I wanna talk about coming back to do The Last Jedi and it had been a while since you had
stepped back into being Yoda.
It had a been a while since I think you'd done any puppeteering at all...
Yeah.
...before coming back to The Last Jedi...
Yeah.
So what did it feel like kind of actually physically getting back in there and performing Toda?
I only have one thought.
And that is making him come alive.
So that question, how did it feel, I just bypass that.
I don't even know.
I just go ahead and make him alive.
So I don’t really think about how it felt.
I mean to try and answer your question, it just kind of felt like the first time I did it.
It was a challenge, it always is but I love it.
It’s amazing it could still be fresh after all this time.
I guess it has to be to keep doing it well.
If it’s not, I’m not doing my job.
A lot of great stuff in Muppet Guys Talking About.
Which part of yourself is in this character?
Yup.
What part of your sort of personality did you bring to Yoda or did you want to bring to Yoda?
What came up inside me was a profundity about him that we often don't have an opportunity to express.
So he gives me an opportunity and there’s a tremendous gravitas and sense of responsibility
for being the oldest Jedi.
So those things and a performer who’s used to comedy, those things are a wonderful thing
to explore and do.
It just also let’s me as a human being see different facets of myself.
And one doesn't plan it.
You just rehearse and things come out organically.
It’s amazing.
The movie is absolutely wonderful, The Muppet Guys Talking.
Thank you.
Absolutely go and pick it up.
Frank Oz, thank you so much for sitting down with us.
My pleasure.
Thank you so much.
This was really wonderful.
And your camera men are absolutely attractive, stunning people.
They are, aren't they?
Is that a criteria that camera men have to be as absolutely stunningly handsome as these people are?
At Lucasfilm, yes.
We have gotten several lawsuits because of it but we feel like at the end of the day
it makes a better product.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I tell ya, I appreciate from afar and I’m going to try and get as far away from
it as possible.
Great. [Laughing]
You know what I like most about Frank Oz?
What’s that?
Somebody finally recognized the beauty and talent we have behind the camera.
Verbally and repeatedly.
[Clapping off-camera]
Yeah, I’m sure that didn't to their heads at all.
It doesn't sound like it.
Big thanks to the Nylo Hotel in New York for letting us use their space for the interview,
and big thanks to you for watching this week.
Think we should end the episode?
Together?
Let’s try.
Okay.
Remember to like the video, subscribe to the channel, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram, download the Star Wars app, and talk to us in the community tab on YouTube.
Because things are happening over there that you have got to check out.
What kind of things?
Star Wars things.
Shocker!
Thanks for watching, and may the Force be with you.
We did it.
We did it.
That was pretty good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We’re very in…
...the same room.
For 15 seconds we had it.
[Laughing]
I think Rian is stunning.
I love him.
I mean I don't love him like I love your camera men.
Sure.
But I really love him.
Your camera men are perfect.
All I’m saying is they’re highly attractive individuals.
You are directing a Broadway show right now called…
No, I directed an off-Broadway show.
An off-Broadway show.
You’re directing an off-Broadway show called In & Of Itself.
No, I’m not directing it now.
You’re not directing it.
No because I directed it already.
I’m directing you right now.
Okay.
How am I doing?
Because it feels like not great.
I think we have to kind of continue and see how we do.
I mean your camera-men are absolutely incredible but I’m not, we’ll have to judge you later on.
Yeah.