Hey boys and girls, we had a lovely chat with the star of the highly awaited movie, The Muppets.  Walter talks about life as the newest addition to the Muppets roster, meeting Kermit the Frog, hope for a Muppet Show reboot, singing duets with Jason Segel, the Muppets' secret Communist plot against children and the perils of Miss Piggy.

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The Muppets

Walter

The Lady Miz Diva:  Walter, how does it feel to have such a big hit movie on your hands?  

Walter:  Gosh, it is amazing.  How else could it feel?  It’s astounding!  It’s head-spinning! I’m kind of having an out-of-body experience!

LMD:  Be careful, Walter!

W: I know!  I do kind of have a history of passing out. {Laughs} No, I’m okay, I’m sitting down.

LMD:  So, it’s been very exciting for you?

W:  Oh yeah!  I mean, being in a movie alongside my heroes?  I know in the film I play this huge Muppet fan named Walter, but I gotta say, Diva, in real life, I’m also huge Muppet fan named Walter!  I’ve been checking my house to see if Jason Segel has any hidden cameras around; he kinda wrote my life.

LMD:  What was it like to meet your idols?

W:  Well, it wasn’t that different from what you saw in the film.  I think the first time I met Kermit, it was as part of the audition and I got overwhelmed and I fainted.  I just passed right out.  Kinda little embarrassing until Jason started crying.  That’s a true story; he cried the first time he saw Kermit!

LMD:  Growing up in Smalltown, did no one ever suggest that your wonderfully fluffy hair, beautiful, spongy bronze complexion and compact stature might have been a little bit different?

W:  Diva!  I’m totally blushing!  Beautiful bronze complexion?  That is the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me!  Wow! {Laughs} Well, you know, I grew up in a small town, but you know, it’s odd, no one ever said anything.  I should’ve known something was up because I never quite looked like anybody else and never exactly fit in, and gosh, they put those doorknobs awfully high up.  I was just glad meeting the Muppets that it wasn’t just me.

LMD:  In the movie, we see what a huge Muppets fan you were growing up.  Did you have favourite Muppet Show moments or characters?

W:  Oh boy, that’s like trying to choose one of my favourite children -- which is really weird because I don’t actually have children.  But yeah, there are moments that stand out: There’s this wonderful bit they did in the show where they have three of the guys sing Danny Boy, and the three guys singing Danny Boy are The Swedish Chef, Beaker and Animal.  The three guys that don’t really speak words!  It is hysterical.  And they’re singing this really touching song and getting all broken up.  That’s one of my most favourites, but I can’t choose just one.

LMD:  What has your life been like since filming ended?  What are you up to these days?

W:  That’s a fantastic question!  Well, a big part of my life right now is talking about the movie.  I feel like a cheerleader, but without the pom-poms or the cute skirt.  I just wanna share the third-greatest gift ever with everybody in the world.  Everybody in the world needs to see The Muppets!

The other thing that some people ask is has fame changed me, and I gotta say the only thing that’s changed is that people keep coming up to me in the street out of nowhere and they go, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jason, for making this movie.” And I have to break it to them that I’m not Jason.

LMD:  Your duet with Jason on “Man or Muppet” was one of my favourite parts of the movie.  Was that very emotional or difficult to film?

W:  You know, it was a blast to film and it was hysterical because it’s so silly.  I mean, it’s heart wrenching, but it’s also incredibly silly.  It was great fun to film and incredibly fun to record.  Jason and I were in the recording studio at the same time singing that duet together and it was great.  Brett McKenzie was there who wrote the song and was also our musical engineer.  It was an awesome experience.  I think the biggest challenge was for our audio engineers because I had to stand up on all these boxes and Jason and I wanted to be able to look at each other, so he had to sit in a chair.

LMD:  He’s quite a tall fellow, isn’t he?

W:  He is.  He actually had to do a lot of the movie sitting down.

LMD:  Do you have plans to work with your idols again on another film?

W:  Oh boy, I sure hope so.  Right now, I think everybody’s really concentrating on this one, but personally, I have a couple of ideas.  I think it’d be really cool to do a biopic with the Muppets and I’d call it, “How I Met My Jason Segel.”  Pretty good, right?

LMD:  You need to copyright that right away, Walter.  Hollywood is full of sharks.

W:  People have been saying that to me, I haven’t quite experienced it, yet.  People are usually nice.  Except for this one shark!  He seems like a nice guy, but he makes me nervous.

LMD:  For me, one of the most important things about The Muppets film is how it not only reminded everyone how much they loved the Muppets themselves, but how amazing The Muppet Show was.  Do you think you could be responsible for a return to the small screen for a reboot of the classic variety series?

W:  Oh boy, I hope so.  Wouldn’t that be astounding?  Maybe if a bunch of your readers write in, we could get that to happen.  Oh yeah, actually that was one of my favourite moments in making the movie was seeing Kermit back up on the stage saying, “It’s the Muppet Show!” and all the craziness going on back behind the scenes.  That was some real highlights.

LMD:  What were some of the things you were surprised to discover as a fan backstage at The Muppet Show?

W:  Well, for one thing I had no idea how enormous Thog was: Thog’s the great, enormous blue monster and he’s huge!  His dressing room is like the size of an old-fashioned phone booth.  It’s amazing!  Other backstage things; nobody’s allowed in Miss Piggy’s dressing room, ever -- like ever! -- Unless it’s Kermit and he has a signed note.  I think actually Miss Piggy has to sign the note.

LMD:  Besides the movie, the Muppets have been in the news recently for some accusations made on a certain news channel.  I must ask, Walter, are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?

W:  Oh! {Laughs} Diva, you know, it’s funny, I didn’t read the article, but I heard something about it and it is hysterical.  I don’t know who wrote it, but I think those guys should be comedy writers.  That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. {Laughs} I love it.

LMD:  Well, in the segment they show an awful lot of you in the clip from the new movie -- which is great publicity -- then they say movies and shows like The Muppets, Sesame Street and Captain Planet are turning young children against the oil industry.

W:  Wow!  Are you sure they’re not joking, cos I mean it takes a really special mind to think up stuff like that.  That’s a writer!  I can’t write to save my life; I have good ideas, but I mean that’s funny stuff.

LMD:  So, for the record, neither you nor anyone you know are involved in an indoctrination conspiracy to turn children against capitalism?

W:  Good grief!  Heavens, no! 

LMD:  It was one of the most surreal things I’ve ever seen on a newscast.  It might’ve been some kind of performance art.

W:  {Laughs} It’s like something The Onion would come out with.

LMD:  Getting back to an earlier question, are you now living in Muppets Studio or have you moved back to Smalltown?

W:  Oh, no, I’m hanging out with the Muppets!

LMD:  So, you are officially a Muppet?

W:  Yeah! I don’t know that it’s totally sunk in yet, but yeah!

LMD:  Does that mean we’ll get to see you on upcoming specials?

W:  Oh boy, I sure as heck hope so.

LMD:  Walter, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy, star-studded schedule for our interview and if there are any tall people in your vicinity, please thank them, as well.

W:  Well, there’s this kid, Peter Linz who follows me around.

LMD:  Don’t let him sneak up on you and steal your identity, Walter.

W:  He makes a mean latte.

LMD:  Last but not least, Walter, could you please give our readers a message about what you would like them to take away from The Muppets film or the Muppets themselves?

W:  Oh yeah, sure!  Kermit the Frog once said that he had a dream of singing and dancing and making people happy, and he said that’s a dream that gets better the more people you share it with, and I just want everyone to get out there and just share the magic that is the Muppets.  They’re heartwarming and touching and hysterically, ridiculously funny.

~ The Lady Miz Diva

December 6^th, 2011

Click here for our review of The Muppets

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