The puppet characters were combinations of people I had known and to some degree aspects of my own personality. Weird was based on someone I knew in Chicago. Dirty Dragon was based on a good friend I had in Indianapolis.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I always liked strange characters.
I was a huge Muppet fan growing up, but that was the extent of my puppet knowledge. I really loved the art form and the whole Henson universe.
It is no accident that I made Cartoon Town a simple little village - in many ways it mirrored my home town. And, yes, many of my puppet characters took on some of the more eccentric characteristics of people I knew there.
In the past, I was always drawn to really quirky, idiosyncratic characters.
I definitely liked the Muppets. I definitely liked Yoda in 'Empire Strikes Back' and Chewbacca. I don't know if I was a fan of puppets or those, like, specific characters.
When you're a young actor you like to go for characters with a bit of flair, so in many films I ended up playing the weirdos. I can assure you I'm not a psycho or a criminal or a bully.
Funny enough, there have been puppets in everything I've written because I have a huge love of puppets. There's a big puppet musical at the end of 'Sarah Marshall.' I wrote 'The Muppets.'
If, at the end of the day, I can look back and see pictures of all the characters I've played, and there's a smorgasbord of weirdos and interesting, odd, different characters, I'd be so happy.
For 'Dragon Quest IX,' one of the biggest things was being able to create your own character and your party members, too. The importance of it is that you can customize the face, the name, or something like that, so the party members are really a reflection of you. It becomes more of your own experience.
When I was a kid, I never saw a puppet show. I never played with puppets or had any interest in them.