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Three decades ago, with rats below deck and a frog at the helm, the Hispaniola set sail on the ocean (you know, the big blue wet thing) for a classic literary adaptation unlike any other. Muppet Treasure Island was released on Feb. 16, 1996 and quickly became a classic.
While it only loosely followed the framework of Robert Louis Stevenson’s original novel, the story still centered on young Jim Hawkins in search of buried treasure with a map from his father. To fill the boots of that buccaneering boy, director Brian Henson cast the 14-year-old Kevin Bishop. And while most of the cast would be filled out by Muppets inhabiting various pirate characters, the movie also featured a few other humans. Most memorably there was Tim Curry playing the conniving pirate Long John Silver, who takes young Hawkins under his wing, only to betray him.
Given the anniversary, Polygon sent out a message in a bottle (via Zoom) and caught up with Bishop, who still holds vivid, Muppet-filled memories from that time. But of all his adventures on Muppet Treasure Island, he’s especially fond of ones where he annoyed the crap out of a surly (but also kind of sweet) Tim Curry. Presented in his own words, Bishop tells a few of these stories here without fear of reprisals from bloodthirsty pirates.
Boarding the Hispaniola
The audition process for Muppet Treasure Island was extensive: 2,000 children auditioned for the part of Jim Hawkins, and they were expected to act, sing, and, most importantly, believably interact with the Muppets.
Kevin Bishop: When I first met Brian Henson and producer Martin Baker, I went to Oval Road in Camden, which was where Jim Henson’s Creature Shop was. I remember going into this building and all of those scary crow-like creatures from The Dark Crystal were hanging on the wall. There was also this pig in the corner of the room, and Brian was like, “This is a movie that’s not out yet that we’ve helped with the animatronics. Put your hand in there and move your hand.” I was moving this pig, and it was incredible, it looked exactly like a pig! That turned out to be Babe from Babe: Pig in the City.
All of the Muppet performers came to my birthday party.
Then I walked into a room with Brian and Martin and I did some reading of the script and I sang the song, “There’s Got to Be Something Better.” I didn’t realize this, but I was the first kid that they saw. On the 20th anniversary of the film, Brian told me that, when I left the room, he turned to Martin and said “I hope they’re all like that.” After that, they went through 2,000 kids and then came back to me. I remember Brian said, “We should have just stuck with the first kid.”
It was a really, really long, lengthy audition process. There were many, many auditions, many recalls. It ended with a screen test at Shepperton Studios in the UK. They had some Muppet performers there, but it wasn’t Gonzo. It wasn’t Rizzo. It was some smaller Muppets that I recognized from various other shows.
I honestly thought what I did wasn’t good enough. I fluffed my lines a couple of times and I remember thinking, “That’s it. I’ve lost it.” Then a few weeks went by and it was a Sunday afternoon. My mom comes running out into the garden and says, “Kevin, you’ve got the part!”
Gonzo, Rizzo and Clueless Morgan
An essential part of acting in any Muppets film requires the actor to buy into the reality of the puppets themselves and treat them like any other performer. Fortunately, the puppeteers knew how to make that easy.
Kevin Bishop: Whenever a performer had a Muppet on their hand, they never broke character. So all the time in between takes, Gonzo would still be Gonzo and I was still talking to Gonzo, not Dave Goelz, who is the performer of Gonzo. I believed that Gonzo and Rizzo were my friends, and we were on an adventure together. Rizzo in particular, Steve Whitmire, was so funny. We would just play all day long.
Another performer I really did bond with was Bill Barretta, who played the pirate goat Clueless Morgan. Bill and I had the same birthday or a day apart. I had my birthday party at my parents’ house in South London and all of the Muppet performers came to my birthday party. They came to hang out and I had a treasure chest cake. Bill would call me his “little pine cone.” He used to put on this cockney sort of voice and go, “How are you my little pine cone?” We still sign off “my little pine cone” on our emails. Actually, I’m still in contact with all the Muppets. Every time I’m in Los Angeles, they say “Kev’s in town,” and we all go and meet for sushi. I think, when you work with the Muppets, it becomes like a family. You don’t really ever leave.
Jennifer Saunders, Billy Connolly and Tim Curry
Besides the Muppets, Bishop had some memorable human co-stars, all of whom the 14-year-old idolized. There was Jennifer Saunders as the innkeeper of the inn where Jim Hawkins works and Billy Connolly as Billy Bones, a drunken ex-pirate who stays at the inn. And, of course, there was Tim Curry as Long John Silver.
Kevin Bishop: When I first heard who was going to be in the movie with me — Tim Curry, Billy Connolly, Jennifer Saunders — my head was just completely blown because Jennifer Saunders and Billy Connolly in particular, I was huge, huge fans of theirs. I was very much into my comedy as a kid and I still am. Jennifer’s still my very good friend to this day. And Billy, I remember thinking, If I can be that famous and that nice, that’s the goal. I also remember Billy said to me, “Kevin, I’ve got some good advice for you. Make sure, in life, you get plenty of good laughs and plenty of good sex. The rest is irrelevant.”
The first time I met Tim Curry, Brian said to him, “Have you met Kevin? He’s around somewhere.” Then I came out of the doorway [hanging] upside down, and Tim sort of looked at me like, Oh Jesus Christ, I’ve got to deal with this kid.
He was really losing the will to live.
Working with kids is difficult, especially showbiz kids. I’ve done it and I find them very precocious, and I was very precocious. Tim, bless him, he had to put up with an awful lot from me. I was a very rambunctious child. I had a lot of energy and I was bouncing off the walls.
He was never unkind to me — Tim was incredibly tolerant — but I could tell I was probably annoying him. There was one particular day where we were in the crow’s nest of the ship, and Tim and I were up there all day from 8 in the morning until we wrapped at 7 p.m.. He had jet lag for the entire shoot. I don’t know if that was because he just didn’t want to talk to me, but that was his excuse. He just kept saying to me, “I’ve got this terrible jet lag, this terrible really, really, really awful jet lag.” And I just talked his ear off all day about films he’d been in, films I liked, all these weird questions that a 14-year-old kid has in his crazy ADHD head.
Tim, in those days, was smoking Marlboro Red cigarettes and I remember, it was nearing the end of the day, and he was smoking a Marlboro Red and he was really losing the will to live. I said, “Be honest, Tim, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, you’re never going to live those fishnets down, are you?” And Tim just looked at me, took a drag on his Marlboro Red, and said, “Not as long as wankers like you keep bringing it up.”
Actually, that was a bit of an ice breaker for Tim and I, because we then developed a very timid friendship. Tim had a very dry sense of humor, which is my favorite kind. He would make many jokes and people wouldn’t even realize that he had done it. It was only for my ears. Like, if somebody approached us who he didn’t like, Tim had a code word and he would say, “Thank you, sublime,” and that would mean Tim wasn’t fond of that person.
Years later, I hadn’t seen Tim for a long time and he was in Spamalot in London. A few of my friends were in the musical, and they said, “Tim just says he’s dying to meet you! He keeps asking after Kevin.” I was like, “Really? Tim? Tim misses me?” They said “Yes! Will you come to see the show and see Tim afterwards?” I said, “Well, yeah. If he wants to meet me, then absolutely, of course.”
When I go backstage after the show, it was like everyone had won a competition to meet Tim Curry. I’m backstage and I can hear the shower is on and I’m waiting there with everyone else. I’m thinking, “Oh God, I wish I hadn’t done this.” Tim comes out of the shower in his robe with his gown on. He lights up what is now a Marlboro Light and to each person he says, “Hello,” “Lovely,” “Thank you so much for coming,” “Hello, nice to meet you,” moving his way along the queue. I’m at the end and he comes to me and he goes, “Kevin fucking Bishop, after all these years, you are still fucking annoying.”
He’d saved that one up. We had a good laugh together and we had a big hug, and it was really lovely to see him.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
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