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How Did Jason Segel Find Out About Mickey Rooney’s Son?

Mickey Rooney rose to popularity in the mid-1920s as a child actor. He was pretty active in the film industry up until his passing. But, did you know about his son Michael Rooney?

In the filming of the movie “The Muppets”, Jason Segel heard the choreographer calling Mickey Rooney “Dad”. Segel tried to tell the choreographer that he can’t just call old people “Dad”. It turns out, Michael Rooney is actually Mickey’s son.

When Did Segel Work with the Rooneys?

In 2011, David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman produced the musical comedy film; The Muppets. Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segel wrote the script. Segel also starred in the movie alongside Amy Adams.

The musical was quite elaborate, with excellent musical direction and choreography. One of the choreographers in the film is the son of the late Mickey Rooney. Rooney did a cameo for the film, and his son taught him the dances.

In an interview with NPR, Segel explained how he found out about the father-son duo.

We had a great choreographer, a guy called Michael Rooney, who actually is Mickey Rooney’s son, who did most of the choreography of the film.

It was really awkward because Mickey Rooney makes a great cameo in the first, in the opening number, and I did not know that Michael Rooney was his son.

He kept bossing him around, going, like, all right Dad, get over here Dad, get over here Dad. And I went up to him, I’m like: You can’t just call an old person dad. And he was like: No, that’s my actual dad.

Jason Segel

(Source: NPR)

The Muppets Movie

Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller pitched the concept of the film to Walt Disney in 2008. Karen Falk, the president of production, offered them a deal to develop their script. They worked with Mandeville Films under David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman. By March of 2008, Disney went public with the deal.

The film was initially entitled The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time!!! and a leak of the script revealed cameos from Hollywood big wigs like Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Ben Stiller, Christian bale, George Clooney, Emily Blunt, Anne Hathaway, Bob Saget, Neil Patrick Harris, and even Jean-Claude Van Damme. By October 2010, the production confirmed that Chris Cooper, Amy Adams, and Rashida Jones would be starring in the film alongside Jason Segel.

Nicholas Stoller was supposed to direct the film as per initial announcements, but production decided to hire James Bobin instead.

Filming started towards the end of 2010, and the movie was premiered at the 2011 Savannah Film Festival. The film worked with a $45 million budget and grossed $6.5 million on its opening day. They eventually became the highest-grossing puppet film with gross earnings of over $165 million. (Source: Box Office Mojo)

The day before the film’s DVD release, The Muppets were awarded their own star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was also the first Muppet movie to be nominated for an Oscar since the 1984 film; The Muppets Take Manhattan. (Source: IMDB)

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