Jason Segal hopes The Muppets gets Oscar nods
By Holly Roberts
The star has been working on the latest Muppets film to be released in New Zealand cinemas on 29 December 2011.
He says the music, written by Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords, is Oscar-worthy, especially the film’s hit song ‘Man or Muppet’.
Segal has always been fond of The Muppets – made clear in his film Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where his character writes and produces a Dracula musical with a cast of puppets. In reality, Segal wrote that musical years before the film was made.
He’s been working on The Muppets 2011 film for the last four years – a dream come true for the actor who would watch old episodes of The Muppet Show that his mother taped for him when he was a baby.
While Segal was looking for work as an actor between in the early 2000s he started buying soft puppets at toy stores and making home movies with them. He showed Judd Apatow his Dracula musical idea to which Apatow responded “You can’t ever play this for anyone ever. You’re getting weird.”
Despite Apatow’s initial reaction, the musical made it into Forgetting Sarah Marshall (directed by Apatow) and used puppets from the Henson Company. This relationship with the Hensen team put Segal as a frontrunner to make the latest Muppets film.
On the musical side of the project, he says Bret McKenzie deserves an Oscar for the writing the catchy numbers. McKenzie responds modestly to the statement saying that Segal gives an incredible performance in emotional ballad “Man or Muppet”.
“He really channels his inner Meatloaf” he told NYMag.
You can listen to ‘Man or Muppet’ here: