Allegations of workplace abuse have surfaced against puppeteer Kevin Clash, best known as the voice of Elmo on Sesame Street.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a puppet wrangler on the set of Disney+'s Earth to Ned said that on his first day on set in November 2019 he was warned by a more seasoned wrangler about Clash, particularly that he shouldn't address the star puppeteer directly. "Amongst other puppeteers, he's known to be very bubbly and kind," the wrangler told THR. "But when it came to wranglers, I was told he tends to be condescending and nasty."
The wrangler ultimately found himself on the receiving end of Clash's temper, which was rumored on set. "He yelled at me because he was leaving a voicemail as Elmo for someone's kid," he said. "I think I was standing too close to him. He told me to 'shut the fuck up.'" Neither Clash nor The Jim Henson Company have responded to the allegations.
While rumors of Clash's temper were seemingly well-known amongst the wranglers on set, this was apparently not the experience of his fellow puppeteers. "My experience with Kevin is he is super generous, always showing newer performers how to puppeteer, happy to give you a laugh in the scene, and just super helpful," said Sesame Street puppeteer, writer and director Joey Mazzarino.
Puppet wrangling is a unique profession that emerged with the creation of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show in the 1970s and requires a specific set of skills, namely building and repairing puppets. Currently, only 25 people worldwide work as full-time wranglers and they are actively pushing for union representation from The Jim Henson Company, additionally claiming workplace abuse, mistreatment and unsafe conditions.
Clash is best known as the puppeteer behind the character Elmo and voiced the furry red monster on Sesame Street from 1984 to 2012. However, Clash would resign from Sesame Street in 2012 after four different men filed civil lawsuits against him for sexual abuse, alleging that Clash had sexual relations with them as minors. Clash denied the claims but resigned from Sesame Street that same year and each case was dismissed due to the expiration of the six-year statute of limitations.
Clash has continued his work as a puppeteer for The Jim Henson Company on several productions, including 2018's The Happytime Murders, the Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance in 2019, Earth to Ned on Disney+ in 2020 and, most recently, Apple TV+'s 2022 reboot of Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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