Muppets movie director told Ricky Gervais to stop laughing and step it up

Ricky Gervais features in Muppets movie after missing out first time around.

Ricky Gervais had cause to remember the legend of Robert the Bruce and the persistent spider when arriving on set for his first day filming Muppets Most Wanted.

The Berkshire-born film star had been a fan of Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and the gang for more than 30 years. “I used to watch them on Sundays with my family,” he told me.

But Ricky’s cameo appearance in the 2011 movie, The Muppets, which marked a return to form after a 13-year absence from cinema screens for Jim Henson’s creations, ended up on the cutting room floor.

“I did a scene with Billy Crystal,” Ricky recollected during a mad-cap Muppets visit to the UK last week, during which Kermit got himself embroiled in the independence debate and his fellow-amphibian co-star, Constantine, insulted France (he spoke out against their treatment of frogs).

“It was just me playing myself, a stand-alone thing, but it didn’t make the final movie.

“I think they shot more than four hours of footage for that film and you can’t put something in just because you filmed it.”

Not that the Muppet world is overly-concerned with continuity, but Ricky’s failure to make the final cut of the 2011 film meant he was available to play a full part in the sequel, Muppets Most Wanted.

The 52-year-old plays Dominic Badguy (pronounced Bad-gee, it’s French), a tour manager of dubious repute who convinces the Muppets to take their act on a European tour.

They play to packed audiences in Berlin, Madrid and Dublin but the theatre tour is just a front for Badguy and his criminal boss Constantine (an uncanny Kermit lookalike) to steal a series of objects which will enable them to unlock the vault of the Tower of London containing the crown jewels.

Meanwhile, the kidnapped Kermit is sent to Siberia where he’s put to work in a Gulag containing such luminaries as Ray Liotta, Tom Hiddleston, Tina Fey and American singer-songwriter Josh Groban.

“It was a good call to get,” Ricky said of his conversation with the film’s British director, James Bobin.

“It’s my first time acting opposite a frog but I knew from day one that I was going to be upstaged.

“I ruined a lot of takes laughing…and on one occasion I just burst out, ‘Ha! I’m in The Muppets!’ and James had to call ‘Cut’ and ask me not to say that again in the middle of a take.

“When I first got the script I worried about the song and dance number I had to perform.

“I’m OK at singing, I’m a failed pop star (Ricky was in pop duo, Seona Dancing, during his final year of university), I wrote songs for David Brent and one for David Bowie in Extras.

“I wrote a song for Sesame Street with Elmo, The Simpsons and so on.

“The dancing is a little bit more awkward. So you start thinking ‘oh no, I’ve got to do this’ but then you realise you’re going to be on screen with a dancing Russian frog and so no one is going to be looking at your clumsy, short legs.”

The Muppets debuted on US TV show Sam And Friends in 1955 but are best remembered for their own music hall-style show, starting in 1976, which was able to attract the leading names of the late ’70s as guests (no matter how big the name, no guest was allowed to appear twice).

They went on to make six feature films and numerous TV specials before falling out of favour in the late ’90s.

Ricky, who lives in London with his long-time partner, Jane Fallon, reckons their return is due to more than a bout of nostalgia.

“I love that acceptance of difference that isn’t even commented on, other than as a good thing.

“Also, their optimism. David Brent had that. No matter how many times you get knocked down you get back up again.

“I think that’s the spirit of The Muppets and it’s been nice deconstructing that for an adult audience.

“It’s probably the best experience of my life.”

Our Verdict

Muppets Most Wanted starts out with a self-referential song about how sequels are never as good as the first movie and then dares you to say otherwise.

OK, so it does turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy, but such tongue-in-cheekiness keeps you rooting for The Muppets throughout and although the main caper isn’t particularly sensational the host of celebrity cameos everyone from Hugh Bonneville to Lady Gaga gets in on the act and Kermit’s banishment to the frozen wastes of Russia keeps things inspirational and celebrational with this Muppet showing.