Ron Howard reveals which Muppet he loves most after making “Jim Henson: The Idea Man” documentary

"It was this journey that I could so relate to — this excitement for creativity," Howard says of Jim Henson's story.

It's not easy being green... or one of the most beloved directors in Hollywood.

Ron Howard, whose latest directorial effort is the documentary Jim Henson: The Idea Man, has now spent a ton of time immersed in the world of the Jim Henson Company and the Muppets — but his favorite Muppet hasn't changed.

"It's Kermit, which is kind of an easy answer," he tells Entertainment Weekly. "Jim related to Kermit for a set of reasons that makes me relate to Kermit — he's a pretty regular guy just trying to get along, and yet, he's surrounded by a bunch of high-octane, eccentric folks. He's trying to be the reasonable one in a world that could sometimes seem kind of mad. Jim got that, and I do, too."

"The interesting thing is that Jim was an introvert, but he became an extrovert when he had a puppet to work through," Howard continues. "He became playful and more buoyant, and he could say more outrageous things. For me, being on the set and directing is when I become an extrovert. It's when I open up and feel freer to express myself."

EW can also exclusively debut a clip, above, showcasing the origins of Kermit the Frog. "This is the origin story of all of these characters," Howard says of the film. "Kermit started as his mother's coat, the fabric from some old coat she was throwing away. They didn't even know he was a frog for a long time. They didn't know what he was. He just fit Jim's hand, and Jim could create funny reactions, and the character could be an alter ego for Jim. And then, slowly but surely, they decided he was Kermit the Frog."

Howard came to know Jim Henson and his story intimately while putting together The Idea Man, a documentary that chronicles Henson's life from his upbringing to his creation of the Muppets through to his untimely death at 53.

Ahead of the film's May 31 debut on Disney+, we called up Howard to get the details on why he chose Henson as his latest documentary subject, what surprised him most about the creator of the Muppets, and whether he would ever want to direct a Muppet movie himself.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve made docs about the Beatles, Pavarotti, and José Andrés. What led to Jim Henson being your next subject?

RON HOWARD: The family was weighing whether or not they wanted to make their archives available and sanction a documentary. Even though they're filmmakers and TV producers themselves, they didn't want to do it, and so they were looking for a filmmaker. I went into it with a lot of respect for Jim Henson and the projects that I knew the best, but I didn't know much more. I had no idea about the dimension of his journey and his wife Jane's creative path, and how his early experimental work so anticipated these iconic characters and shows.

There's a great creative origin story there that I didn't know would be so entertaining, fascinating, and ultimately, inspiring because they lived their lives totally around this quest for creative fulfillment. And we're the beneficiaries of that. So, I thought, "Well, this is an interesting celebrity profile to think about." Instead, it was this journey that I could so relate to. It's different than mine in many ways, but I so recognized this excitement for creativity and desire to be as productive as you could be and loving to collaborate with people.

You were on Sesame Street back in the 1970s while you were on Happy Days. Did you get to meet Jim at that time?

Not at that time. We didn't get to interact with any of the Sesame Street characters. We were, Henry Winkler and I, in character, and did a quick learning piece. It was filmed on our set on the Paramount lot. I remember both of us being a little disappointed that we didn't get to hang out with the puppets.

Related: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and the epic quest to revive Jim Henson's Dark Crystal universe

What was your relationship with Jim Henson and the Muppets throughout your life? Did you get to meet him at some point? 

I met him very, very briefly at a really chaotic moment where we were both involved in this live primetime variety show ABC was undertaking. We were both going to be guests, not together, but we crossed paths. First, I thought there was a band wheeling a lot of gear in; [they had] long hair and stuff, and then I realized, no, it was Jim Henson. We briefly met, and that was it. Mostly, [my relationship] was just as a fan. I appreciated the risks he was taking, the creative experiments that he was undertaking on a high-profile level, creating things like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. I always had a lot of respect for him.

When I got started working on the film, though, I realized that I didn't know that so many of those fantastic short films on Sesame Street, those little learning films about counting and letters and so forth, that Jim directed all of those, and he created all of that. He didn't just contribute the Muppets to Sesame Street. It was this entire aesthetic and approach to making learning fun. That meant a lot to me as a father, sharing that with my four kids as they grew up. My admiration for Jim just kept deepening. George Lucas, who I've known well over the years, always characterized Jim as a bonafide creative genius. And I second that, having worked on the film and learned what I've learned.

But I also want to add that Jane Henson, his wife, was also extremely talented, very creative, and had a great eye for talent, including Jim, who she recognized early on as somebody who had a lot to offer. None of this would've happened without her.

In terms of Jane Henson, you really do foreground her. When I spoke to you about The Boys, you and your brother talked about how you were always with your dad on set, but you didn't fully appreciate how crucial your mother was in holding everything together until you were older. Was that something you saw paralleled and part of why you wanted to make Jane central in the storytelling? 

You're right about the discovery that I made as a son, but this is quite different. Because it was interesting that she had been so central to the development of the Muppets, the Muppet characters, and the Muppets as a business. I didn't know any of that about her, and I felt it was important. It was interesting to hear her children talk about her and their dad with real affection and love and appreciation, but also clarity as to the quirkiness, their foibles, and the particular qualities that made their marriage work and ultimately led to it dissolving. But what was left was this great family and this remarkable creative legacy.

Related: How to build the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational Muppet Show episode

Your company, Imagine, has worked with Frank Oz before. Was that relationship crucial to all of this coming together? 

No. We would've done the film even if Frank didn't want to be an interview, but I was so thrilled when he did. It was our first major interview, and he offered so much insight and perspective that it really helped us begin to shape the story. Stylistically, on that first day interviewing Frank, I had the idea of trying to make his entrance in stop motion, which is one of the Jim Henson aesthetic styles that he used so much in those short films and in his experimental films. Frank knew exactly what I was talking about. In one take, he did his kooky entrance where he pops around, and the chair spins around and he sits down. It established for all of us on the creative team that Jim's sensibility was going to be a lot of fun to work with, and we wanted it to be a part of the fabric of the film.

How did that shape the design of the space in which you conducted these interviews and the way you shot them?

Jim was so experimental, and that's the stuff that we don't really know about. He had this TV show that they allowed him to make very inexpensively in the mid-'60s called The Cube. It was a little humorous, Twilight Zone-ish about a guy who was stuck in this room and didn't really know why he was there. It was this great little set and one of our producers said, "Hey, maybe that should be our interview space." Our cinematographer jumped on that idea. On a practical level, it meant we could take that set to any of our interview subjects and it would all feel like they were sharing Jim's space. It was his world when you entered the Cube. But it also was a great opportunity to use each of those cubes like they were a TV screen and keep flooding our screen with images from all those characters, Jim's life, Jane's life, and the kids. It really energized everything, and we kept going deeper and deeper into the aesthetic of Jim's experimental films.

It's about his creative life and his family life and the legacy of his children. Do you think there's something unique to Hollywood families having come from one yourself? 

Look, it's a small business. There aren't that many people who are engaged in it. And for a percentage of those people, it's very high profile. Their family experienced that. It's unusual to have two parents who are so creatively engaged. There's something unique and bohemian about that. And yet, the practical matters of life still factor in, and vestiges of traditional thinking could come in and have an impact on the family. All of this is interesting in terms of making this not only a celebration of his work or his creative journey but a character study of an iconic individual.

Related: The Muppets sit down with Brett Goldstein to reminisce about making The Muppet Christmas Carol

Was there one clip in the archival footage or a story about Jim that really unlocked who he was for you? 

His experimental film, Time Piece. His kids said, "If you really want to know our dad, look at Time Piece." It doesn't have a puppet in it, but it does have this sense of kinetic energy, creativity, wit, and irony. It's funny, but it's also desperate. And the clock is a central character. You realize that, somehow, he was running against time always. For whatever reason, he was in a race. Did he know he was only going to live 53 years? Of course not. But did he know time was precious and life was fragile? Yeah, he did. He lived that way. But it was also the paradox of all of his curiosity, his appetite for life, the whimsy about the way that he expressed himself, and then these moments of desperation. You realize that this was a complicated guy on a very interesting journey.

Was there anything his kids said that really surprised you?

I would say the fact that he was a paradox in that he wanted to be a traditional parent, and he wanted a traditional marriage, even though — without drugs and the psychedelic side of the rebellion of the '60s — he was a part of the counterculture. He was about freedom of expression and experimentation and all of that. But when it came to his family, he was traditional. That paradox did surprise me.

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This definitely shows his creative genius. But if you had to pick one thing as sort of his greatest gift, what would you say it was?

His ability to be satirical but not cynical. He was able to, with great affection, say, "Look how silly we can all be. Look how crazy the world can be." And yet not turn that into something bleak, but to recognize joy amid the chaos.

You've told Jim's story, but would you have any interest in directing a Muppet project, be it with Disney or the Jim Henson company? 

I probably wouldn't because I think there's already been so much great work done that I don't know that I could really add anything fresh or exciting to it. But I know they'll keep working with the Muppet characters because they're iconic, and through them, they can say a lot about the world in ways that can be very entertaining but carry a message. 

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.