411mania Interviews: Brian Henson

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 01.18.2010

Farscape: The Complete Series is now out on DVD, and chairman of The Jim Henson Company speaks and co-creator of the series, Brian Henson, checks in with 411mania for an exclusive interview about Farscape, Muppets, and much more.

Brian Henson, son of the legendary puppeteer Jim Henson, carries on the legacy created by his father with The Jim Henson Company. Over the years, Brian's had a hand in creating, writing, producing, directing, and even performing in such shows as Farscape, Dinosaurs, and The Muppets Tonight. After the Farscape series was unjustly canceled on a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, Henson brought the returned cast back to direct the awesome Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars miniseries. Henson also directed The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island theatrical movies. Currently, Brian is the chairman of The Jim Henson Co. and his sister, Lisa, is the CEO. Henson recently took the time to speak with 411mania for an exclusive interview right before the holidays:



Jeffrey Harris: First off, I just wanted to thank you for all the great work you and the The Jim Henson Co. have done over the years and being a big part of my childhood with the Muppets and even my adulthood with Farscape as well.

Brian Henson: Well, thank you.

Jeffrey Harris: Where do you think a show like Farscape stacks up against other favorites such as Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 and also the newer shows on SyFy popping up like the new Stargate shows? And sometimes I don't think Farscape gets the respect that it deserves.

Brian Henson: Well, I think what Farscape did was break the mold and that's what we were trying to do. When we made Farscape, we were very much in a science fiction on television environment that was very clean very technology based. Emotions were very controlled. Various Star Trek series were very controlled and there wasn't a wild energy to them and there wasn't a lot of passion to the types of stories and events that occurred. So what we did with Farscape was to try and break that mold completely and we used a much more emotionally unpredictable characters in them. We didn't say in a universe where it intelligence is so advanced that people are capable of interstellar travel, they therefore are very much emotionally controlled. Instead we said, in a version of the future where literally technology is so far evolved that it is now, there are now indeed intelligent lifeforms that started as technology then became self-aware then started to self-reproduced and are now actual life forms like the leviathan that's in Farscape who is the ship that they travel on. So our characters don't need to understand how to build a ship that is capable of interstellar travel. Instead, they basically are riding and are in a team with, one of the characters is a self-aware life form that is somewhat biological and somewhat technological, that is the ship.

Anyway this allowed us to just allow the show to get a lot more emotional and it allowed the stories to get a lot more unpredictable and characters turn a lot in Farscape. And characters change from good to bad, they change alliances quickly. We then were sort of on a run, and we were lighting this whole direction and that sort of made the show a lot more primitive. In this version of the future or this more advanced universe, maybe religion has been re-emerged as quite important and tribalism has re-emerged. That allowed us to do this whole sort of production design approach that was much more passionate and dangerous in many ways and that allowed the show to be more passionate and dangerous. What we were trying to do is just make a more exciting ride, but when you're watching an episode of Farscape, it's more exciting and unpredictable perhaps than an episode of Star Trek.

And I think that what we did do was that we successfully broke that mold, and I think that other shows that were trying to come out at the same time were going in a different direction. They were trying to go funny. They were trying to lighten science fiction, lighter fare, but by removing the life and death stakes and by removing the obsessive romances and all of those teeth, they ended up with something that couldn't last and was really a little bit flimsy whereas what we did was get a lot more primal -- and we end up with a very exciting roller coaster with every episode. And also I think that we did was in terms of our creation and characters and alien lifeforms was very bold as you would expect from the Jim Henson Co. We did do animatronics and CG characters. We did a lot of stuff you wouldn't used to be seeing much of in a TV series.

Jeffrey Harris: Grayza's child, is it John's? It's John's right?

Brian Henson: *Laughs* I can't answer that. I don't think we -- the implication was pretty strong there. It's tradition, we don't confirm or deny anything . . . Actually though, I can tell you an interesting story relating to that. Rebecca [Riggs, the actress who played Grayza] was actually pregnant. And we were faced with a conundrum before shooting because when we were putting the financing together and writing the scripts, Rebecca was not pregnant. And then Rebecca became pregnant and we realized we either needed to recast Rebecca, which was a bad idea because Grayza's a known character, or we had to figure out why Grayza was pregnant. And then, that took us in a direction that got us more and more excited. So by the end, it isn't a mistake that she's pregnant, and it will pay off in the future of Farscape, but it's funny that it was real life that forced the issue.

Jeffrey Harris: I've been loving the comics for Farscape that take place after the Peacekeeper Wars. And there was also talk of continuing Farscape through mini-webisodes. And then there were some setbacks with the writer's strike and then the economy crashing. Do you think we could still see them at some point in the future?

Brian Henson: Yes. I want to say confidently yes. I pretty much never give up on something if I think it's a good idea. What we have is, we've got a very good, creative, solid concept of what the next chapter of Farscape is once Aeryn and Crichton's son gets a little older. So there really is a plan here. The comic books are in the gap and that's deliberate and we know exactly what we're doing. So the next things that we'll see on the big screen or the small screen, but on screen, will follow from what you are now reading in the comic books.

Jeffrey Harris: I've think that the Jim Henson Co. has still been doing great work in this modern, digital age on computers. And I'm still always giddy when I get to see you guys' work on screen be it Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy or even more recently, Where The Wild Things Are. There's something very appealing to me that with the costumes to the Wild Things because there was something Muppet about them.

Brian Henson: Yeah.

Jeffrey Harris: They looked like giant puppets, and that was very attractive to me. So I appreciate that you guys are still carrying on the legacy in doing work with puppets and practical animatronics. Has it been hard to do work like this in this computer age?

Brian Henson: Well I think we're sort of deep into an obsession with 3D CG animation. It's certainly exciting for filmmakers to be able to say, "Wow. In 3D CG, we can pretty much do anything we can imagine. And that's exciting." With animatronics, you live with some of the realities of shooting on set, and there's a lot of difficulties when working with animatronics. But there are bonuses that the people who work in digital don't really acknowledge. You can't -- it's really very difficult, and it requires a lot of cheating and other techniques to actually have the appearance of real interaction between a human actor and a creature if the creature is 3D digital. And it's a lot easier to create a spark there on set if you are working animatronics. So there's a lot of bonuses to animatronics that are not really apparent when you're considering whether to use digital animation or whether to use animatronics. There are some difficulties to animatronics that are obvious. Once you've shot it, you can't change it. I mean you can with enhancement.

But I think where we're at now is, people have sort of seen everything that digital animation can do which is basically anything. It can do anything. And it's also very expensive and there is definitely a resurgence of creating cool creatures where when you're watching them on screen you really can imagine you're in the room with them because they really do feel like they're in the room with you. And I think that we'll continue to see stuff. It's not nearly as active as it used to be. I mean we used to do 3 big movies and we're certainly not doing that. We're doing one big movie every few years. But I'd liked to see a pick up again somewhere.

Jeffrey Harris: I will say, one of my fondest childhood memories is seeing the Muppets In 3D attraction at MGM Studios and then getting Kermit The Frog's autograph afterwards.

Brian Henson: *Laughs* Good.

Jeffrey Harris: Some people have been very critical of you and the way you've run the Jim Henson Company. People have said about Brian Henson that for you, this is just a business and not your passion. But seeing the fantastic work you've done on things like Farscape, I don't know how people can say that. Does that ever bother you?

Brian Henson: I think the biggest criticism of me is that I did sell the company to EMTV. That I did buy the company back and shrink it, and that I sold the Muppets . . . First was, I led the company to be sold in 2000 and I think that was shocking to people, why would the Henson family sell the Henson company? And they just don't understand the situation at that time. We were in an environment in the industry and in America where by television production was being done by the TV channels because the TV channels were now being allowed to own their programming. And if they were going to buy programming that they hadn't produced, it would be from only small companies that they would think are not very competitive. So we were literally in a market where we were shut out of the industry, shut out of television. And that was going to ruin the company. So at that point we needed to merge the Jim Henson company with a bigger entity that owned TV channels. That was the reason that I did that.

It's perfectly understandable that some of the public would go, what did he do? He sold the company. It never mattered to him in the first place. That's their feeling. It's not true at all. Everything I did was to try and assure the longterm success of the company. Then, when the company we sold to failed very quickly, EMTV, I led the initiative to buy the company back and I think at that point all the fans were saying, oh I guess wasn't the bad guy that we thought he was. I guess he is the same guy that kept the Muppets alive, made Muppet Christmas Carol, made Muppet Treasure Island, and gosh I got him wrong, thank goodness and we're all so excited that the Henson family has bought back the Jim Henson Company. Then, when I led to initiative to sell the controlling interest of the Muppets to Disney, everybody was shocked again and just said oh I guess he was the bad guy that I thought he was.

That's really the course of the negative feelings about me, and I totally understand people's feelings. People don't know the inner workings of a company and why decisions are made. My dad always wanted the Muppets to be in Disney World. He always thought that was the way the Muppets should live on. And so selling the Muppets was a way of ensuring the future success of the Muppets. Now I do think that Disney has gone a little slowly in the 5 years that they have had the Muppets. And I certainly appreciate people's concerns, well what's -- where's the Disney production engine making Muppets? And I do honestly believe they will come around. We will start seeing a lot more Muppet production and it will be good and Disney are careful about their characters. So I think when you hear people saying that I've been criticized as it's just a business, it's so not true. I mean on a deal by deal basis, I've always put creative first. I've always put quality first. And obviously, I commit 100% creatively to anything that I get involved with but some of those bigger business decisions are very complex, the reasons why they're done. And every decision was to ensure longevity for the Henson Company and the Henson name and to ensure the creative quality. And I think people look at the roller coaster the Muppets have been on: the Muppets went over to EMTV, then the Muppets came back to Henson, then the Muppets went over to Disney and they think that oh that's just a bunch of horrible corporate business moves. And they don't understand why we were doing what we were doing, but I promise you every move that we made was to ensure the careful handling of the future of the Muppets and to place them in the right place. And I could be wrong, fans could be right, but I still stand by what we did.

Jeffrey Harris: Is there a character or Muppet you've played over the years that you like the most?

Brian Henson: Not really. My first passion is for directing, that's probably what I'm most passionate about and I do love performing. It's probably not my first passion. It scares me. I get stage fright. It spooks whereas directing doesn't spook me the same way. I live with high stress levels when I'm performing. But I don't have a favorite character. The two biggest characters that I played where Jack Pumpkin for Return to Oz and then Poggle for Labryinth. So being that I'm someone from someone who suffers from stage fright enormously, I think those are the ones that gave me the most gray hair because they were the first characters that I played. Maybe those stick with me the most.

Jeffrey Harris: I remember reading that Jason Segel was writing a new Muppet movie for Disney. Is that still in the works?

Brian Henson: Well again now you're with Disney so you really do need to talk to Disney about that. As far as I know -- and I know about as much about it as everybody else -- but I do know that there is a re-energized effort to get the Muppets into the movie theatres with a movie. And I'm very glad because initially when the Muppets first moved over to Disney, there was a lot of talk where the should the Muppets go? What kind of production? Should they do a little web series? Should they do TV series? And I was always a firm believer that they should aim high and do a proper, great Disney movie with the big Disney marketing plan and do a great Muppet movie. So, I'm actually pleased that even though they've taken a long time, that clearly is -- they've now made the decision that that's what they want to do. They're developing I think more than one idea, and I think which ever develops the most and they like the best is the one that will get made and I don't know which one that will be.

Jeffrey Harris: I mean I'm very excited about the prospect of a new Muppet movie, new Dark Crystal, and new Fraggle Rock. I have to say it gives me a little bit of the madness, that cabin fever.

Brian Henson: *Laughs*

Jeffrey Harris: Going back to Farscape, I'm so in love with John Crichton and Aeryn Sun played Ben Browder and Claudia Black and I can't imagine anyone else playing those roles. Who cast them for the show?

Brian Henson: Oh, I cast them. What do you mean?

Jeffrey Harris: Are you taking credit for that?

Brian Henson: It's my series. The main players at that time were the SyFy Channel, which was Rod Purse, at that time was running programming the SyFy Channel. And clearly, as you would imagine, the SyFy Channel weighed in very strongly on casting. And then inside of our company, there was me and there was Alex Rockwell and Marcy Ross under me working on Farscape. It was a big show and it requried everybody getting involved. But SyFy Channel weighed in very heavily on the casting of Ben Browder, but we all agreed. We were down to 3 or 4 finalists, and there was no argument. When we were looking at the 3 or 4 finalists. Ben had that little spark of insanity in his eyes, and I mean that in the nicest way because I'm a huge fan of Ben as an actor, but there's an unpredictability in his eyes even though he looks like such a solid all-American guy when you go in close on his eyes, there's something going on there. He's worried about something. He's scheming something. There's something else always going on in his eyes. And I thought that was very, very compelling and he's a great actor but when you're in the final rounds, everybody's a great actor. But he was SyFy's first choice and our first choice and he ended up in that way.

Now Claudia Black ended up in a very interesting way because what we were looking, the Aeryn Sun -- and the other one I'm obviously leaving out is Rockne O'Bannon. Rock had strong opinions [of] this is the kind of person I'm looking for. And once they were casting things to look at, Rockne was also very involved. So when I say it was me: It was me, it was Rockne, it was SyFy Channel. Rockne weighed in very strongly on all these. Aeryn was a very interesting casting because Claudia was being used by the casting agent in Australia. The only role that could be cast out of America was Crichton. And all the other roles had to be cast out of Australia because of the financial structure that we were producing under.

So we were casting Aeryn in Australia. Rockne and I saw Aeryn as, if you like, we saw her as the Nazi, you know? We thought she should be an Aryan looking, very fit girl. Very pale. We imagined very athletic. We were thinking quite probably an actress who had gymnastic training and that was probably blonde-haired blue-eyed because at the time we were thinking Peacekeepers is the metaphor for the Nazis and that was the direction we were going. So the casting agent in Australia was doing casting sessions off of our brief and they used an actress to read the other lines so we were looking at these tapes of this series of actresses auditioning to be Aeryn and the other actress in frame that the casting agent was a friend of theirs, but was a really fantastic actress. She was working and all, but she was inbetween jobs. She was helping out her friends over at the casting agency and that was Claudia Black. So it was very odd because we were looking at these casting tapes going, "She's not right, but who's the other girl?" *Laughs* So we really cast physically in a different direction than we thought. And truthfully -- all of the cast is brilliant -- but considering that Claudia was not really the type we were looking for, she to me -- that's most compelling bit of casting in the piece. She's the most unexpected and absolutely brilliant. But it was again a strange series of events that brought her to us because she never would've been brought in to read for the part with the brief that we had given the casting agent.

Jeffrey Harris: Is John and Aeryn your one true pairing?

Brian Henson: *Laughs* This is now Rockne. I will totally say that Rockne from day 1 said, "I want to make sure that Crichton and Aeryn is an unforgettable romance of the millenium." And that's what he wanted. That was something that Rockne was absolutely adamant on. He was watching very closely what was happening in that relationship that they never really got each other and that they never really fell apart to keep them in the sparkiest, juiciest, romantic tangle that he could keep them in all the way through the series. And I think that was Rock's instinct. He said, "there's so many TV shows where there are central romances. There are characters that don't like each other. They're married to other people, but you know something might happen. But we came out with Farscape at the time no one had the actual courage to put romance on screen, and Rock was adamant that we would put the most juicy, fantastic romance on screen.

Jeffrey Harris: And it was. And I appreciate that you did get them together after constantly torturing them for years.

Brian Henson: Yes we constantly tortured them and let them get together and pulled them apart. And I'm sure we're not done, *laughs*, I'm sure we'll still pull them apart and get them back together . . .

Jeffrey Harris: John's still getting tortured by Aeryn and other various things in the comics. But I guess for you, you're OTP is Kermit and Miss Piggy?

Brian Henson: For me, it's John and Aeryn. I think for my dad it's Kermit and Miss Piggy. But my dad, he had such -- Piggy wants it to be Kermit and Piggy. Kermit just kind of loves the whole gang, *laughs*.

Jeffrey Harris: Thanks so much for your time and answering my questions. I'm looking forward to all the work you and the Jim Henson Co. does in the future and hopefully more Farscape as well.

Brian Henson: Alright Jeffrey, take care.



Farscape: The Complete Series mega-boxset is now available on DVD.