David Bowie apparently had the whole cast laughing so hard they kept blowing the shot in Jim Henson's Labyrinth.
By Russ Burlingame
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Decades after their original release, Jim Henson's The Dark Crystaland Labyrinthhave just received a 4K digital reissue from Shout Studios. The movies, which were a chance for Henson to do something wildly different from his work with The Muppets, have become beloved family classics in the years since their release -- even if their reception left Henson feeling a little burned at the time. One undeniable high point of the productions, though, was Henson's partnership with Labyrinthstar David Bowie. Bowie, who came on board to play the film's antagonist Jareth, was apparently a delight to film with, and Henson's son Brian -- then a young puppeteer working on the Hoggle character -- shared some of his fond memories of working with Bowie during an interview with ComicBook.com.
As a huge fan of Bowie, Henson told us that he was thrilled when he found out his father planned to offer the role to the pop icon. Characterizing Bowie as a funny, down-to-earth guy, Henson said that he thought the pair got along in part because of how much of a workaholic Bowie was -- a trait he shared with Jim Henson.
"I think the most fun was the scene where David has the glass balls and throws a glass ball to Hoggle -- and I was the lead performer on Hoggle, meaning I was working his face," Henson said. "Shari Weiser was working inside the body. He would throw it, and it becomes a peach in his hand, and then he throws it to Hoggle. And Hoggle has to catch it, and Hoggle says 'What is it?' And Bowie says, 'It's a gift.' So, for whatever reason, David thought this was so hilarious. First of all, David is standing with with Michael Mtion, the very famous juggler, crouching inside his costume right behind David's butt, reaching around, and being David's hands. So David's not even being his own hands. So that's the setup, and then he throws this thing to Hoggle, and then Hoggle is a mechanical hand to be big enough, so Shari's trying to work this long-fingered mechanical hand. It's very, very hard to catch a peach. And she can hardly see....So anyway, we would to take after take where they'd throw the peach and Shari couldn't catch it because of the mechanical hands. And so we'd have to do another take, and it was very frustrating for Shari. But for whatever reason, David and I kept laughing every time Hoggle would say 'What is it?' Then David would go, 'it's a peach!' He'd go right off script, then we'd all start laughing hysterically. And Shari inside was just going nuts. She was like, 'Guys, I got it! I caught the peach, and then you're messing it up!' Now we're all laughing. It took us forever to do that shot. My dad was laughing. One of the funnest things about working with my dad, and what he looked forward to the most, is when you just couldn't get the take done, because everybody's laughing too hard. David also embraced that, when you just can't stop laughing. David kept getting Hoggle's name wrong -- those were always such funny scenes, because he'd pull different names out of what he'd call Hoggle, and then we'd all start laughing."
Previously, Henson had spoken with ComicBook.com about the process by which his dad landed on Bowie for the part. It included talking to his kids about candidates like Sting and Michael Jackson.
"I can't speak for my siblings, but I can say for me, I vaguely remember the name Sting coming up," Brian Henson told ComicBook. "I definitely remember Michael Jackson and David Bowie. I had just been at university for the one year that I went to college, and I can tell you that I was going from nightclub to nightclub, and Michael Jackson and David Bowie were the two biggest names in my generation, for sure. So when he asked me, I was leaning in favor of David Bowie. I just felt like Bowie had a quirkiness and yet a really coolness that would work really well for my dad, whereas Michael had a perfection to his work that would have been tough."
LabyrinthandThe Dark Crystalare available to purchase or rent digitally now.
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