“Muppets Most Wanted” Press Conference Brings Out the Laughter w/Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey and Ty Burrell – and Muppets! (Photos, Video)

Hi everyone!

We were invited to the “Muppets Most Wanted” press conference in Beverly Hills, and we sent a correspondent to share the fun with our readers and viewers! There were a lot of hilarious moments, from Sam Eagle hugging actor Ty Burrell and calling him a “Great American” to Ricky Gervais fielding a question on which Muppet he would want to send Karl Pilkington with on “An Idiot Abroad”.

Ricky Gervais (Dominic Badguy), Tina Fey (Nadya) and Ty Burrell (Jean Pierre Napoleon) joined Kermit, Constantine, Sam Eagle and eventually Miss Piggy at the table, trading quips and answering questions for over 20 minutes.

The actors were asked if they were nervous about singing in the film, and Ricky Gervais (who was part of my favorite number in the movie) said that he was okay with singing, he’d actually been part of a musical group very early on in his career. But dancing? “A little awkward. A little embarrassed about that. I don’t move well. But I was with a frog, so it doesn’t matter. I do anything with a frog. That’s my motto!” As the audience laughed, he continued, “No one is going to be looking at me, when we are doing that dance. They are going to be saying, there’s a frog dancing!”

Sam Eagle later joked about Ty Burrell after Burrell said that Sam was his new life coach. Sam said, “For about half of the film, this man is such a great actor, he had me going. I literally thought he was a Frenchman” (laughter). He continued, “He (Burrell) was so convincing, I think his portrayal of a Frenchman will go down in history as the most convincing portrayal of a Frenchman in film”. Burrell looked at Sam Eagle and replied, “I think you and I finally really bonded when we realized we had the same eyebrows”.

Miss Piggy later switched out with Sam Eagle, talking across the table to Tina Fey, who said that during the film “you refused to meet me”, but offering words of how pretty Miss Piggy was. Miss Piggy offered up a similar compliment after a bit of a pause.

One of my favorite questions was the one about Karl Pilkington. Which Muppet would Ricky Gervais want to send with him around the world on “An Idiot Abroad”? Gervais answered, “I reckon…Piggy. He (Pilkington) can’t stand anything high maintenance and whiney, so that would be good. That would finish him off”. Thinking for a moment, Gervais continued, “Or Bunsen. That would be good as well, because they look so alike. That would confuse him, he wouldn’t know which one he was”.

Here is the entire press conference video!