[IMG:L]As everyone who’s seen the original Shrek knows, orges are like onions: they have layers. And as Shrek the Third, the latest film in the series of animated storybook send-ups, is about to hit theaters, we peeled back one of those layers to reveal the man under not-always-so-jolly green giant: Mike Myers, who talks about his process for creating comedic characters, his long-awaited next live-action project and his fondness for the swamp-dweller from Far Far Away. “They have a lot of charmth, the Shrek films,” says Myers of the trilogy (that’s a combo of warmth and charm, we think) and, as his chat with Hollywood.com reveals, so does the once – and future? – Austin Powers.
Hollywood.com: When you read the first Shrek script, did you ever envision it becoming a trilogy?
Mike Myers: Jeffrey Katzenberg said, “I would like you to be in an animated movie.” And I like Jeffrey. And so I said, you know, “Tell me when, and what to wear.” And then he said, “It’s called Shrek.” And I said, “That’s the worst title in the history of anything.” And I was right. So I never know anything is gonna be anything. I do my best and see what happens.
HW: Do you feel like Shrek has his own movie stardom, apart from yours? Like you could be in a room full of 6-year-olds and they’d know who Shrek was but maybe not who Mike Myers is?
MM: I have the oddest experience. In New York City, it’s like, 3-year-olds and 93-year-olds –“There’s Mike Myers!” I don’t know how that is and it’s not anything by design. Little kids, because of DVDs now and whatever, they’ll see one movie, then they’ll see all the movies of that guy. That’s kind of the thing I’ve found. So it’s weird, but it is a great experience when little kids light up and are happy to see Shrek.
[IMG:R]HW: What made it worth revisiting Shrek for a third time?
MM: Every serial character learns the same lesson in a different rite of passage, so you have to have a reason why you come back and visit them. And it has such a sense of three-ness of it, that smartly honored the audience for having invested in one and two, and then have delivered on three. They’re such great entertainers, the whole team, that I feel like I go to school every time. I come and I go, “Oh, that’s just such a good idea. Oh, that’s a good idea.” The first time we meet him, he’s a self-loathing ogre who doesn’t accept himself, and doesn’t feel he’s worthy of love. The second one, he doesn’t feel he’s worthy of marriage. And then in this one, he doesn’t feel he’s worthy of being father of a country, or the father of a child. It’s a logical progression. It’s a smart progression…I can say that because I’m a fan of the movie. Because all I do is the voice.
HW: You’ve kept a fairly low profile over the last few years, but you’ve been at work the entire time?
MM: I write everything I do. On the average, it takes you about 60 months from the first molecule of an idea to it being in front of an audience. For somebody that creates their own stuff, I’m well ahead of that curve, always. I’m usually three years ahead, which is 36 months. And in two months, I’m starting this movie called The Love Guru, that I’ve spent a year developing. That’s what I do with Austin Powers. You know, the Marx Brothers used to tour their movies for six months [before filming them]. And when I was on Saturday Night Live, I had the luxury of trying it out that week, and seeing what was gonna be what. And so after that, with Austin Powers, I would tour for a year, and then take a year and a half to write, and about a year and a half to bring it to people. So it always ends up being about 3 ½ years.
[IMG:L]HW: How different is The Love Guru from your other films?
MM: The Love Guru is – I love broad comedy. [Between] Failsafe and Dr. Strangelove, given the choice between those two delivery systems for the idea of impending nuclear war, and the madness of that, I would always choose Strangelove. And this movie has more message than my previous movies. And that’s taken longer because I don’t want it to be a situation of, “I’ve suffered for my art, and now it’s your turn.” I want to make sure that it is actually better and sharper comedy if it is to be a delivery system of more of a message.
HW: Who is The Love Guru?
MM: He is a Canadian who is raised in an ashram in India and becomes a guru, and helps a hockey player who’s fallen off the rails win the Stanley Cup. You know, that old chestnut. We call it a “Number 14.”
HW: Are you developing any other side characters to play for that film?
MM: For me personally to do? I’m on the fence. There is a couple that I could do and they’re not sure. There’s so many forces at work that have nothing to do with you that are hard to juggle.
HW: When you were writing The Love Guru, were you writing with the intention of having a series of films, like Austin Powers, Shrek or Wayne’s World?
MM: I’ve never gone into anything with the intention of having a series. You can’t. It’s a one movie at a time thing, and then if it connects with people and they come back and say, “Would you like to do another one?” adjust it to that time…I barely thought there was enough for a second Wayne’s World, to be honest, and so I was very careful with Austin Powers, that I did actually feel that there was a necessity to revisit the world.
HW: Any possibility for a fourth Austin Powers film?
MM: There is a fully conceived idea for a fourth. I can just say that it’s from Dr. Evil’s point of view. And if you balanced how much it was Austin for Dr. Evil, it’s more Dr. Evil than Austin.
HW: Could you be an actor for hire any more after enjoying so much creative control?
MM: It gets hard, I have to be honest. Many great scripts come my way. But when you’ve invested a year and a half into something, then it becomes a year and a half of molecules, versus what, do I just give that one up? I love making stuff. I draw and I play the ukulele, as well – Okay, everybody calm down! I know this is some interesting stuff coming around – and I get just as much excitement out of figuring out “Here Comes the Sun,” or getting the shade right on a tree as I do making a movie. I was well-indulged as a child, by my relentlessly self-improving working class parents, to express myself. I’ve enjoyed it. And so part of why I take so long, too, is I’m enjoying myself.
HW: Has there been any downside to your success?
MM: No. It’s trickier than I thought. I’m from Toronto. It’s a very, very laid back city. It’s a very unpretentious city, so when you are thrust into different environments, there’s an odd adaptation period. There are times when unkind and unfair and ungenerous and moreover untrue things are written about you. That bothers me less now. When I was first [starting out], I was like, “I can’t believe that! I’m not on the UFO Alien Sex Diet where I only eat salmon.” The irony being that I am on that now. But you kind of go, “Wow, that’s just crazy. How can they do that?” On the other hand, my best friend from Toronto came down for the fourth of July and I wanted to see the fireworks. We were rushing to get to the South Street Seaport. They started already and I was at the Brooklyn Bridge. I went, “Oh, could we watch it from the bridge?” And a cop was like, “I’m sorry, the bridge is closed off.” It was completely closed off. And then he went, “Hey, go ahead Mr. Myers. Go ahead, Mike, don’t worry about it.” [Into walkie talkie] “Mike Myers is coming up.” So I walked on the bridge entirely by myself, me and my best friend, we watched the fireworks from the bridge and I was like, “You know what? The end of the day, it all kind of works out.”
