Lisa Henson: Honoring A Legacy

“Whenever you personal one thing that you’ve got inherited, and it is your father’s work, it is necessary to get it proper.” Lisa Henson

Lisa Henson, alongside along with her 4 siblings, spent a lot of her childhood, in her father’s workshop and studio in New York Metropolis. To her, it was a magical place the place puppets had been drawn and sculpted, and got here to life. What a wonderful introduction to innovation and creativity for the lady who now, CEO of The Jim Henson Firm, is tasked with not solely honoring Jim Henson’s legacy, however transferring the corporate ahead in new and dynamic methods.

Lisa shared with me that when Jim went on places to Canada or taking pictures in New York, she and her siblings, spent period of time on set observing. “In some methods, it was a spot for us to play, nevertheless it was additionally a spot for us to study and to soak up what he and his collaborators had been doing. Then, as I bought older, I spent way more time with him in a substantive manner. In story conferences. I might like to go to the modifying room on Muppet Present in London. He took me to some pitch conferences, which was actually enjoyable. Once I was in faculty, he allowed me to tag alongside to a few of his pitches in Los Angeles.

We liked to speak about work. I liked to speak to him about his initiatives. He liked to speak to his youngsters about what he was doing. There was numerous sharing and, I suppose you possibly can say unofficial mentoring in bringing us alongside, as a result of he did actually hope that we’d work within the enterprise and make it a household enterprise.”

Once I requested Lisa what had been a number of the most necessary issues she discovered from her Dad, she unapologetically stated, “Every part!”

Lisa Henson: He had such a pleasure in his work and thought of it a real privilege to get to do what he did. He handed that to me, such that I by no means consider work as work, I consider what I do as a artistic calling and a privilege as a result of my work is so nice to do and I get to work with nice artistic individuals and make fantastic issues.

Bonnie Marcus: How do you proceed to honor his legacy, but in addition develop to new applied sciences, new ventures? Is legacy central to what you do now?

Henson: Legacy is an enormous a part of what we do, and inventive innovation can be a part of the legacy. My father was very technical in his pursuits. Any sort of new expertise that got here alongside, he was fast to leap on it and assume, ‘How can I work in that medium now?’ together with his very first job, which was to get onto tv. It was a brand-new factor within the ’50s, and he was enthusiastic about it. That is how he ended up doing puppets. Initially it was to fill a slot for a puppet present on the native tv station.

He grew to become the grasp puppeteer, and I feel, arguably, an important puppeteer, however he began with a objective to work in tv. In a while, he wished to work in movie. He wished to do one thing in stereoscopic 3D, which he did. He wished to do interactive tv, which he tried. He wished to democratize manufacturing by taking pictures with handycams and telephones, and he was manner forward of its time on all of these issues.

We have a look at technical innovation as an enormous a part of the legacy, however what you’ll contemplate the most common elements of taking good care of a legacy has to do with legacy characters. The characters and the reveals that we inherited are crucial to us, and in some circumstances, we as a household made the selection to care for the legacy by setting it up someplace.

The Muppet Present, Muppets had been offered to Disney. I feel that was a really legacy-conscious transfer. It wasn’t monetary. My father himself had seen Disney as the last word residence for The Muppets. He was forward of it as a result of he was the primary particular person to promote his legacy characters to Disney earlier than George Lucas and John Lasseter and Marvel. Now all people is aware of that is a terrific place to guard the way forward for your characters.

There have been many issues that did not get offered to Disney and our legacy titles of Darkish Crystal, Labyrinth, Fraggle Rock, and newer legacy reveals like Farscape, which really is my brother’s present, and is now sufficiently old to be thought-about a legacy present. These are crucial to us. Once we reboot a present like Fraggle Rock, which we simply did for Apple, or create a tv sequence based mostly on Darkish Crystal, which we did for Netflix a few years in the past, we are going to put the perfect and most gifted of all of our collaborators on these packages to ensure that they’re impeccable.

Whenever you personal one thing that you’ve got inherited, and it is your father’s work, an emotional degree of that legacy work, it is necessary to get it proper. On the identical time, new properties and properties that my father by no means touched are an enormous a part of our firm now.

We simply additionally produced Harriet the Spy for Apple. We did the primary animated adaptation of it. I am very, very pleased with that present as effectively. We have now in all probability a steadiness of growth that ideas way more in the direction of new properties and creating new issues for our firm, and but these legacy titles, as I stated, they’re very emotionally necessary. It is necessary to get them proper. To be a bit perfectionist about it.

Marcus: Sure. It sounds not solely emotional, however a part of that could be a duty, to hold the legacy ahead.

Henson: Numerous the issues that we do are issues that the corporate has been doing for a very long time. Not everybody’s conscious of it, we do worldwide gross sales on our reveals. We have now client merchandise. We have now dwell theater. At present, we’re doing podcasting. We have now a really, very sturdy archives division that works on touring museum reveals in addition to— our household, my sisters particularly, have labored arduous to get everlasting displays arrange on the Middle for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta and likewise the Museum of the Transferring Picture in New York. That can be served by a very, actually sturdy archives division. We personal numerous kids’s music. We’re administering music with our companions at an organization known as Reducing Edge.

I feel total, we’re very acutely aware of ourselves now as a robust model meaning one thing to folks. It means one thing to a number of generations, that when you say it’s from The Jim Henson Firm, whether or not it is a characteristic movie, dwell motion or animation, or if it is a kids’s present or a extra family-oriented present, like The Darkish Crystal, something that will come from The Jim Henson Firm, there’s an expectation of it being extremely imaginative, celebrating creativity, progressive and worthwhile. Typically I really feel like my private firsthand information of my father could be very worthwhile in navigating the alternatives we make.

Marcus: What would you say have been your best challenges as CEO thus far?

Henson: The pandemic was an attention-grabbing problem. We had been an organization that was half capable of maintain working remotely and half not, as a result of we now have a recording studio at our lot, we now have a bodily stage for taking pictures, and we now have, most significantly, two actually fantastic creature retailers in New York and in LA the place individuals work in particular person.

I additionally assume we now have a problem of being a mid-size firm. We’re neither tiny nor are we a significant. We’re not as massive as our model appears like it will be. I feel it is a problem to navigate being each massive and small, nevertheless it’s additionally allowed us to outlive and transfer in a short time. When you could have an organization that’s our measurement, we could be nimble and we are able to reply to any sort of new enterprise, whether or not it is getting individuals engaged on podcasts, or a few years in the past, we actually leaned into theater experiences and simply the experiential leisure enterprise.

We will also be very nimble about working with all completely different companions. Whether or not we’re making a characteristic movie for Netflix, we have labored for 10 years on a stop-motion animated movie with Guillermo del Toro’s model of Pinocchio. It is unimaginable. That is with Netflix. On the identical time, we now have three tv reveals with Apple+. We have been doing, over the past 20 years, numerous work with PBS Children. We’re capable of be nimble. That is why I might say that our best problem can be certainly one of our best strengths, which is simply being unbiased and neither tiny nor big.

Marcus: What would you say are a number of the most necessary classes you’ve got discovered since operating the corporate and likewise maybe what you’ve got discovered about your self?

Henson: I’ve tried to make myself actually accessible and visual to all people within the firm, as we now have lots of people who’ve been there for a few years, however then many new individuals on a regular basis. As the corporate evolves with youthful individuals coming in, I at all times wish to be accessible as a mentor or someone they will speak to. I do make myself fairly accessible. I do not make numerous private pronouncements or speeches and I do not write quite a bit about what the corporate ought to be doing, however I prefer to make my presence felt and to be personally accessible to all people.

I feel all of us should hear extra. I’ve to, each single yr, attempt to be a greater listener than I used to be the yr earlier than. That is at all times my perennial New 12 months’s decision to hear extra and speak much less. I feel on the identical time, if you’re the chief, individuals count on you to have a standpoint. I additionally attempt to not have too massive of an ego about strolling again my standpoint once I change my thoughts, as a result of I alter my thoughts ceaselessly. I simply need individuals to know that that is actually okay.

It’s a must to reply to what’s taking place. You would possibly assume that you’ve a cause to really feel very strongly about one thing, and then you definately shortly understand that you just would possibly over time say, ‘Really, what? Now that you’ve got advised me this different perspective on it, I’ve modified my thoughts.’ I wish to assume that folks do not get mad at me for altering my thoughts as a result of I really assume altering your thoughts is a manner of being versatile and resilient and responding to what’s actually happening round you.

Individuals come to the enterprise with numerous several types of abilities and robust personalities. I’ve at all times thought-about myself to be a gentle particular person within the heart of quite a bit happening. I want individuals to know that I am the regular one. Character-wise, that is the sort of chief that I’m, the one which they will rely on. To not lose my cool or to not be too reactive.

I additionally actually respect sturdy personalities. I respect massive artistic sorts. I need individuals who have massive goals and bold goals, and who’re daring about what they wish to get carried out. I need them to really feel that The Henson Firm may also help them see their goals come true. Typically I do not see myself as an enormous dreamer, however I see numerous massive dreamers round me. I need our firm to be the place the place the actually nice artistic stuff occurs.

Bonnie Marcus, M.ED, is the writer of Not Achieved But! How Ladies Over 50 Regain Their Confidence and Declare Office Energy and The Politics of Promotion: How Excessive Reaching Ladies Get Forward and Keep Forward. An government coach and speaker, Bonnie can be host of the podcast, Badass Ladies At Any Age.