If you’re familiar with Miss Piggy of The Muppets fame and Yoda from Star Wars, there’s probably one thing that comes to mind when you think of them; their unique, unmistakable voices.
It’s hard to imagine that Miss Piggy’s high-pitched tones and Yoda’s otherworldly vocals have anything in common besides their notability.
But in fact, both characters were voiced by the same actor, Frank Oz, as I discovered through @BTSn8tion’s post on X.
No?!
Yes! In fact, The Guardian interviewed Frank about his impressive career back in 2021.
Frank started out on The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, where he voiced everyone from Miss Piggy to the Cookie Monster, Bert, Grover, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam the Eagle, and Bert (phew).
Then, he took a sci-fi turn with Star Wars, where he not only voiced Yoda, but also invented the alien’s signature syntax.
“There was a bit of that odd syntax in [the original script], but also it had Yoda speaking very colloquially. So I said to George [Lucas]: ‘Can I do the whole thing like this?’ And he said: ‘Sure!’ It just felt so right,” Frank told The Guardian.
Though the Miss Piggy/Yoda crossover is impressive, Frank hasn’t worked with Disney’s The Muppets since 2007.
“I’d love to do the Muppets again but Disney doesn’t want me, and Sesame Street hasn’t asked me for 10 years. They don’t want me because I won’t follow orders and I won’t do the kind of Muppets they believe in,” he claimed.
“People don’t understand, anyone can do a voice. It’s not the voice – it’s the soul,” he added.
People were impressed (and shocked) by the actor’s range
“He had versatility,” one commenter said.
“Say what?! Yoda and Bert ― the same person…omg,” another replied.
“I always forget just how many characters he voiced,” another person commented. You know what? At this rate, I bet he does, too.
Anything else?
Would you believe it ― yes.
The prodigious actor directed comedies like Little Shop of Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, What About Bob?, In and Out, and Bowfinger. And in 2004, he directed a remake of The Stepford Wives with Nicole Kidman.
He’s also acted in films like Knives Out, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, and Spies Like Us.
And yes, he’s appeared in Energizer Bunny ads for Duracell as well (presumably because of his own seemingly battery-powered work ethic).