Sure, sure.

Fozzie.

He lived with other bears in the cave, and he was just funny. He was cracking up the bears, but then the bears hibernated, and he wasn’t sleepy. So he decided, “I’m gonna go out and make people laugh.” And it turns out that maybe the bears thought he was funny, but nobody else did.

Piggy.

It’s very elaborate. I mean, she’s a damaged person—

A damaged pig.

Well, you know, I have to take it seriously, because if it was funny, it wouldn’t be funny. I have to be serious, because whatever damage she has in her life, and whatever inconsistencies, whatever insecurities, whatever lack of talent, she desperately does not want to be that person. She came from a farm, and she had to leave home because her father died in a tractor accident. And as her mother was alone and Piggy grew up, it was fine. But then, as she got older, these suitors who came for her mother paid more attention to Piggy, and there was tremendous tension. Finally, Piggy just had to leave and go it alone. She didn’t have anything, really, so, like many single women, she had to take care of herself.

Grover.

Grover is interesting. He is somebody who tries very, very hard to please—to try to do the correct thing to the degree that he doesn’t use contractions. So, in other words, instead of saying, “I couldn’t do this,” he would say, “I—could—not—do—this!” Because by saying “couldn’t,” he’s not trying hard enough. He’s got to be righteous.

Bert.

I had trouble with him as a character in the beginning because there was no character there. While Ernie was cute and cuddly, Bert was just this stick, and I was very frustrated because he was so boring. And then I realized, “That’s what he’ll be. I’ll make him the most boring character in the world!” I took that negative and made it positive. So now his favorite color is gray. He loves oatmeal and white bread. He studies the various tributaries of the world. Absolutely boring shit that nobody cares about, but to him, it’s fascinating.

What about Yoda? Did George Lucas do most of the work on him?

George and Larry Kasdan both wrote the part, but then, I fleshed it out for my own sake.

So what did you bring to Yoda?

George and Larry wrote the backwards language, but it was only used part of the time, so I asked George if I could do that all of the time. What I thought Yoda had was tremendous gravitas. Still does. At the same time, as strong and powerful as he is, he’ll also laugh—not unlike a Zen master, not unlike the Dalai Lama. You’ll find him laughing even when his Tibet is being destroyed, and people being killed, and the libraries burned. There’s the value of the gravitas, and there’s value in levity.

There’s an interesting point in the film when Fran Brill, the sole woman of the group, says she never felt like one of the guys, and you are actually surprised.

Right. I was surprised because she’s our sister. You know, we’re brothers and sisters. But I realized what she was saying: she couldn’t emulate us. That’s different than not being a part of us. She said, very poignantly, “I had to retain my femininity. I couldn’t just try to be a guy. I had to be a woman still.”

She also talks about giving as good as she got. As when, between takes, Cookie Monster looked up Prairie Dawn’s dress—