Mike Myers agreed to a role in Bohemian Rhapsody without even reading the script.
The actor portrays Ray Foster in the new biographical film about British rock band Queen, focusing on the life of frontman Freddie Mercury, as played by Rami Malek.
Mike’s character is a “composite” of the actual music bosses who urged Queen not to include the six-minute long song Bohemian Rhapsody on an album, and he shared during an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night (31Oct18), that it was a dream gig.
“I got a call (from the producers asking), ‘Do you want to be in a movie called Bohemian Rhapsody? You play the EMI executive who turns to Queen and says, ‘You can’t have Bohemian Rhapsody on your album?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah!'” he recalled. “They go, ‘Do you wanna read the script?’ And I’m like, ‘No, not really, I’m in. Just tell me when and what to wear.'”
Mike, who showed up for the interview in a Halloween outfit, an homage to Major Harry Carlyle from the 1977 WWII film A Bridge Too Far, went on to explain that appearing in the flick felt like a full circle moment because he listened to the Bohemian Rhapsody tune with his brother when growing up in Toronto, and because of the inclusion of the song in his 1992 comedy Wayne’s World.
However, the 55-year-old star shared that the producers of Wayne’s World had originally wanted another song to play in the now-iconic head-banging sequence.
“I had a chance to write and be in the movie Wayne’s World, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’d love that to be the song.’ And the studio went, ‘No.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean no?’ And they said, ‘We want Guns N’ Roses.’ I love (Guns N’ Roses) but it wasn’t something I grew up with, so I really fought hard for that to be the song.”
