What Did Kermit the Frog Do to Make ‘Muppets’ Star Jason Segel Cry?
He played a guy who loved puppets and opera in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but Jason Segel didn’t have to act much when it came to a certain set of puppets on the set of his new movie. Turns out he LOVES the Muppets – so much so that he was moved to tears by none other than the lovable (and very green!) Kermit the Frog when working on the upcoming Muppets flick. Jason admits to HitFlix.com that during the first table read of the script, he got a little ‘something in his eye.’
“I cried the first time Kermit said a line I’d written,” Jason told HitFlix. “I’d been writing the script for about four years, literally since ‘Sarah Marshall.’ We did a table reading, and they’d brought the puppets for the first time. We’re all just sitting at the table, and all of a sudden they brought out Kermit and he said the first line that I had written. And I just lost my sh*t a little bit. I started crying at the table read and I had to awkwardly ask them to stop filming. It was emotional. He’s been my favorite since I was a little kid.”
Jason also spoke with Collider about working with the longtime voice and muppet operators.
“I mean these guys know the characters so much better than I could ever hope to. I can imagine what I think the character might say, but these guys have been playing them for 10, sometimes 20, 30 years. I wish you guys were over there so you could see how a kid reacts to those puppets. It’s one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen. The puppeteer just instantly disappears. You watch a child…you can see the guy standing there with a puppet on his hand and he’s talking, and the kid is looking directly at the puppet. Every time it happens it reminds me of why I wanted to do the movie. It’s a truly beautiful thing.”
Gotta love an actor who has such an emotional connection to a film! Pretty sure Jason’s giving it his all in the movie.
For your viewing pleasure, here’s the trailer for the movie:
The Muppets is set for release November 13th.
Are you stoked for the Muppets movie with Jason Segel? Who is your favorite Muppets character? Have you ever been moved to tears by something you love like Jason was?
