It’s been 40 years since the young waitress at Pete’s Luncheonette promised a discouraged frog and his band of weary Broadway hopefuls that her father would give them spoons with their free soup.
For Juliana Donald, who got her start on the screen as a ballerina in a Kellogg’s commercial, the role of Jenny in Muppets Take Manhattan was a breakthrough in her young film career. Playing the sweet fashion student working at her dad’s restaurant, she helped buoy Kermit (sometimes with controversial huggies) as one desperate attempt after another to sell his Broadway show failed.
Juliana recalls that the audition was “one of thousands” she went on while trying to get her start in New York. The casting director told her it was an impossible role to cast and they had seen everyone, so she considered it a long shot.
In the callback, she found herself face to face with Kermit, the first time she had worked with puppets. “It was a little odd,” she conceded, “talking with felt and eyes.” But it worked out – just a week before filming would start, Juliana was “pleasantly surprised” to be cast in the role.
Even though it was her first film, Juliana knew this experience was unique. For one thing, all the sets were built four feet off the ground to allow the puppeteers to walk with puppets above their heads, meaning one wrong step could send someone toppling. Puppeteers were crammed into small spaces, headsets on, sharing monitors. She credits that collaborative spirit for creating a fun, playful vibe on the set where everyone knew how to share the space.
“The whole energy on the set was really friendly and positive and happy,” she said. “There wasn’t any star who acted like a star. It was odd in the sense that they were famous, but they didn’t seem like they were famous. They were all joking around.”
That carefree spirit may not have reached Frank Oz, whom Juliana described as a nervous wreck in his solo directorial debut. On a tight shooting schedule while also playing multiple parts in the film, Juliana said he was good, but nervous as he jumped back and forth between puppeteering and directing. She said the filming was economical, though, and not superfluous with unnecessary take after take, although filming puppets can be logistically tedious to accommodate having to hide humans, sets built off the ground, and a general lack of opposable thumbs.
“I’ve done jobs where you have a director do 500 takes to make them feel they are doing a good job,” she said. “That’s 100 times worse than the puppets trying to get things right, so I didn’t mind the stops and starts.”
Juliana especially liked filming scenes in the diner, with Steve Whitmire puppeteering Rizzo the Rat, her diner coworker, creating a fun atmosphere in a kitchen where rats swam in coffee, glided across pans on butter skates, and used whisks as unicycles. She also got to work with Art Carney and Brooke Shields when they made cameos at the diner.
“Most everyone was really sweet because they were coming on a Muppet movie,” she said. “They looked on it as a fun thing to do.” Even Martin Scorsese’s parents were frequently on set as extras, mingling with everyone else.
Juliana loved working with Jim Henson, although he was often away working on other projects and would come and go from the set. His son, Brian, would sometimes fill in for him as Kermit.
“Jim Henson was an amazing human being,” she said. “He had the most kind personality you have ever seen in your life. With everybody – with his kids, with his assistant, with the stars, with kids on the street.”
One of her favorite memories was when they were filming the jogging scene in Central Park (which would feature one of her other favorite cameos – Gregory Hines). While the crew was setting up the shot, Jim was sitting in the grass when a group of little kids started forming around him because they saw Kermit. Jim started talking to all the kids as Kermit and soon 20 then 30 kids were around him. It delayed shooting, but she remembered that Jim seemed unconcerned.
“The most important thing to him was the children and not, ‘We have to get this shot,’” she said. “I remember thinking, I don’t know if I will ever have a job like that again and I didn’t. On other sets, everybody was serious, just doing their jobs. That set was like, let’s play and have fun.”
To connect with Jenny, Juliana tapped into the character’s innocence and compassion despite the backdrop of a gritty 1980’s Manhattan. She drew inspiration from the summers she spent as a student at the American School of Ballet in New York, going into delis and oblivious to the dangers of city streets.
The movie was released with a big premiere followed by a party where people dressed in costumes and masks. Watching the movie for the first time, Juliana enjoyed seeing how it all came together. She loved the music and the parts she hadn’t seen yet, like the Muppet Babies fantasy scene. While she hasn’t sat down to watch it all the way through in a long time, she says friends will still call to tell her, “Your movie is on TV!”
Juliana retired from acting after decades on film and television when she found it wasn’t fun anymore and decided to go back to school, eventually becoming a gemologist and a jewelry designer. But she is still recognized by fans, including those who know her from a role as Tanya in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “A Matter of Perspective” and Emi from the Deep Space Nine hour “Prophet Motive.”
And she still meets fans who saw Muppets Take Manhattan as children, some now sharing the film with their own children.
Juliana said one of the reasons the movie endures is the passion behind making it. “It wasn’t about the money; it was about something else,” she said. “It stands the test of time because it was fun and joyful and happy because everybody was doing something they loved.”
Click here to come face to face with Kermit on the Tough Pigs Discord!
by Drake Lucas
