| "It's great to hear him talk about
directing movies - he's done some fantastic films, people tend to forget that he's a
brilliant director in his own right," he said. "But then when he starts doing his impression of Cookie Monster -
that's when you look around the rest of the cast, and they are salivating."
Humans, not puppets
As well as the Muppets, Oz also gave life
to a number of the most famous puppets from Sesame Street - such as Bert, Grover and
Cookie Monster.
However, perhaps his most famous character
was another puppet, Yoda from the Star Wars films. Oz not only performed Yoda's movements
as puppeteer, but also created his distinctive backwards way of speaking.
But he has directed a large number of
Hollywood's biggest stars in a string of blockbusters since the 1980s - including Steve
Martin and Eddie Murphy in Bowfinger and Nicole Kidman in the much-derided Stepford Wives
remake.
Meanwhile, Oz has also cropped up as an
actor with brief parts in films as diverse as Trading Places, The Blues Brothers and
Monsters Inc.
Oz created Yoda's distinctive way of
speaking
He told On Screen that he considers it
"odd" that people still ask him "what is it like to work with humans?"
- as if the Muppets were in fact live creatures.
"I do work with humans, I don't work
with the puppets," he said.
"I used to work with people who were
wonderfully talented and very professional - and those are the people I dealt with, the
ones who performed the Muppets."
Oz in fact directed three of Hollywood's
very biggest names in one movie - 2001's The Score, which starred Robert De Niro, Marlon
Brando and Edward Norton.
However, it was not a successful project.
Oz and Brando fell out during filming, with De Niro having to act as a messenger between
the two.
The film itself fared dismally, being
panned by critics and flopping at the box office.
"When I do a movie, I just put one
foot in front of the other and do what my instincts say - and hope for the best," Oz
said.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/ |
