PLUME: I was most impressed by the atmosphere your imminent arrival caused amongst the puppeteers on the set of Muppets From Space…

OZ: I’m totally dumb to that. What happened?

PLUME: You’ve become a hero to them, and they held you in a great deal of awe. Almost like a rock star was visiting the set.

OZ: I never think about that. I just report for work. It never crosses my mind.

I think it’s because, in part, they feel that through me they can get to Jim. I think it’s not just me. I think it really is a great deal more that I worked with Jim so much, that in working with me, they work with Jim. I can’t take it as personally as me. I think I represent certain things to them.

PLUME: And, to a certain extent, it’s like working with a figure from their childhood…

OZ: Right, and again, I represent having worked with Jim in the original days and the original characters like Bert and Ernie and stuff. So I’m very grateful that that’s the feeling. But I also know that…certainly…part of it is what I represent.

PLUME: How much of your background in performing impacts your method of directing?

OZ: I think greatly. I think the fact that I’m a performer and that I’ve done live shows since I was a kid (I’ve been performing for about 35 years) I think impacts in me a sense that I have some relationship to other actors – and I have some relationship to an audience which translates into some spontaneity. All I can do as a director is hope that I’m the normal Joe like anybody else. That’s what a director is. First thing he is is an audience.

PLUME: You can also relate to your actor’s point of view?

OZ: Yeah, but it’s so prideful…in a bad way…to talk about how certain things (like being a performer) helps me to see things a certain way, because the truth is that you could talk to other actors I’ve worked with and they may hate my guts for the way I direct. I have no idea. So I don’t want hubris to take over here, because that’s very easy when you’re being interviewed like this.

PLUME: When did George Lucas approach you to reprise your Yoda role?

OZ: Rick McCallum did. George is a busy guy, so Rick called me maybe about a year before.

PLUME: Did it seem to you a bit incongruous to have a puppeteered Yoda amongst a sea of CGI?

OZ: I was a little surprised that George would want Yoda back – but he feels that there’s an organic quality to Yoda that’s endearing to people. Not to say that the next one he does won’t be CGI, but he felt that Yoda needed to be live (for Episode I). That could change next time, but it didn’t seem incongruous at all.

I was asked to do the job…I love the character…I really like working with George because he knows what he’s doing and knows what he wants – and it’s wonderful to be part of film history. So I just go there and work my ass off.

PLUME: What are your thoughts on the critical backlash the film has received?

OZ: I think it’s bullshit.

PLUME: Do you think it was a matter of the press creating the hype, and then needing to tear it down?

OZ: F***in’-a, I mean, if that was the first film out – and there was no Star Wars, Empire or Jedi – they’d be falling all over themselves about how fantastic it was.

I read the script a year before, because George decided to let me read the whole thing because I decided Yoda needed to know what was going on, and I thought it was a great script. And I’m not kissing his ass. I don’t need to do that. I thought it was a terrific script, and I cracked up with Jar Jar. I thought he’d be the next big character.

I think he (Lucas) created an extraordinary world. I think you can’t win when you have that much of a build-up. That was build-up was the most amazing build-up for a movie outside of Gone With The Wind. The biggest problem with movies are expectations. The expectations of the press, the expectations of the people. You can never live up to those kind of expectations – ever. I mean, if God tap-danced, they would still be unhappy with those kind of expectations. I think the expectations had a great deal to do with the quality of the reviews.

PLUME: How do you think it will be viewed in the future?

OZ: I think it will be viewed as one part of the whole, and a necessary part to get where George wants to go with the other parts.

(continued below…)

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