Mike Myers Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

Ow.

Ow, Jesus.

Just a little comedy.

[upbeat music]

Wayne's World.

I grew up near, on or about the rough parts

of Scarborough in the suburbs of Toronto.

And it's very heavy metal, and I was a heavy metal kid.

This character was just basically everybody

I knew who talked that way, including myself.

Okay, we're just about out of time, right.

But before we go, we'd like to take a moment here

for a Wayne's World salute to the Guess Jeans girl,

Claudia Schiffer.

Schwing. Schwing.

Tent pole.

She's a babe.

[Wayne growling]

[Garth hissing]

I had done Wayne Campbell on Canadian TV.

I, first of all, I had done it on stage in punk clubs.

And then I got on Second City

main stage in Toronto, and did a sketch.

And then there was a show called

It's Only Rock and Roll on Canadian television.

And I did Wayne's Power Minute.

And then I got hired for Saturday Night Live.

He was in my trunk of characters.

Then Lorne said, do you wanna make a movie?

He offered me a different movie.

And me being a dummy, and not knowing anything just went,

no, I wanna do Wayne as a movie.

And he was like, mm okay.

We got behind it.

We went to Paramount and we made it.

And we didn't think it was gonna get made.

We didn't think it was gonna get released.

And we didn't think that anybody would go see it.

And it was an unbelievable, unbelievable, joyous surprise

that it just kept being the number one movie

for weeks after weeks.

That bass player's a babe.

She makes me feel kind of funny.

Like when we used to climb the rope in gym class.

I think one of the biggest leg ups I had

was that I was in the film with Dana Carvey,

who was one of the greatest comedians

to ever be on Saturday Night Live.

I just learned so much from him.

I think the thing I learned the most,

because I'm a writer of the stuff,

is that there's writing and then there's performing.

And to enjoy the performing.

He's the most joyful performer I've ever worked with.

♪ I wanna take you home ♪

If I hadn't worked with Dana

and learned that you have to get the fun molecules

into the funnel that get onto the film,

I don't think I could have done Austin Powers.

It was just great to work with somebody that goes,

yeah, we're supposed to show off.

We're supposed to have fun.

That's why they came here.

Austin Powers International Man of Mystery.

So I grew up in Canada, but my parents,

both of them were English.

And there's nobody more English

than an Englishman who no longer lives in England.

And my dad, who was very, very funny,

and my biggest champion, loved comedy, loved comedians.

He loved all entertainers.

It was great that the one that he loved the most

was Peter Sellers, who was English.

When The Pink Panther was on,

or even Down among the Z Men, more obscure, or The Bobo,

or I'm All Right Jack, or the ultimate masterpiece

of Peter Sellers, which is Dr. Strangelove.

We all aspire to that.

We want to touch the hem of that garment.

You know, I said to my dad, he goes,

what do you wanna do when you grow up?

He was from Liverpool.

And I said, I don't know, I think I wanna be an architect.

He goes, why would you wanna do that for?

Be a comedian.

So I had the opposite of what most people had.

Okay, name.

Austin Danger Powers.

Sex, yes please.

So, for me, Austin Powers was that kind of cheeky chappy,

who was everything that my dad

was proud of of being British.

But another key ingredient of that was Burt Bacharach.

And that there was a '60s that Burt Bacharach embodied

that I hadn't really kind of seen put into the movies yet.

The '60s that most people had done was Woodstock hippies.

But the one that I loved was the moneyed '60s,

the international man of mystery '60s.

And I think the biggest influence

was the movie Casino Royale.

Thank you.

And welcome to France, Monsieur Bond.

[door crashes]

I contacted Burt Bacharach.

That was my first call.

And he agreed to be part of it.

And then he agreed to be in it.

Then Elvis Costello agreed to be in it.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Burt Bacharach.

♪ What the world needs now is love ♪

I was talking to my brothers,

I talk to my brothers about seven times a day.

And I said, I thought that you would have to have grown up

in my house to like Austin Powers,

'cause it was so specific.

But again, it was such a lovely surprise

that it meant something to other people,

other than just me and my brothers.

Shrek.

To me, it, the Eurocentric form that is the fairytale

is really about classism.

When I was approached to do Shrek,

originally I did it as a Canadian.

And I rerecorded it as Scottish

'cause that to me seems the most working class.

But also too, I have a love of the Scottish people.

I have Scottish ancestry, mostly English,

but Liverpool is, it's the pool of life

between Scotland, England, and Ireland.

Layers, onions have layers.

Ogres have layers, onions have layers.

You get it.

We both have layers. [sighs]

I love the idea of taking a fairytale,

turning it on its head, having it be

that all the traditional bad guys are good guys,

and all the traditional good guys are bad guys.

And I realized it's a dramatic role.

I mean, halfway through I went,

there's an emotional center here.

You know, the old joke,

I wouldn't wanna be a member of a club

that would have me as a member.

I have always felt that way.

The concept of going from a self-loathing ogre

to a self-accepting ogre was meaningful to me.

I love you.

Really?

Really, really.

I love you too.

[gentle music]

[crowd sighing]

I loved playing Shrek.

If I had to do one Shrek a year, I'd be thrilled.

So I Married an Axe Murderer.

Every actor who's given a script is given an opportunity

to shape it and give feedback.

It was in San Francisco.

I was like, if it's San Francisco,

should be beat poems and beat poetry.

I loved Jack Kerouac.

And I would, in my life, would always be,

there's no telling what's on the mind

of the man going to the fire that is not there.

I dug Berlin Street, once white, now steamed with gum.

That sort of fun Kerouac thing.

So I thought, well, I'll make him a beat poet

in San Francisco.

Woman.

Wo-man.

Wo man.

She was a thief.

You gotta believe.

She stole my heart and my cat.

I wanted it to be a genre mix

because there's a point in a man's life

when he's deciding to get married.

And there is a part of them that feels

that that makes them ever more closer to dying.

As much as they're happy to be married

there is a, well, if I'm married, then it's kids.

And if it's kids, then I'm retired, then I'm dead.

And so there is a sense

of one's own mortality at that moment.

So I wanted it to be a comedy thriller.

Wait.

Why don't you just taste it?

It's got strawberries in it, you love strawberries.

Taste it, taste it.

I spent 20 minutes making it, just take a sip.

Take one little sip. I'm just gonna go.

I'm just gonna go. Just try it.

One little sip wouldn't hurt, take a...

I am just so incredibly grateful.

I have to this day people saying to me, head, move!

Head, move!

It's been a great, surprising,

fantastic experience that it's stayed around.

The Pentaverate.

I've been obsessed with secret societies.

And I put into the script of So I Married an Axe Murderer

that the Scottish father is obsessed with

a group of people called the Pentaverate

who control everything.

Well, it's a well known fact sonny,

that there's a secret society of the five wealthiest people

in the world known as the Pentaverate,

who run everything in the world, including the newspapers.

And meet tri annually at a secret country mansion

in Colorado known as The Meadows.

I've just seen the culture, since I did that,

long time ago, get more and more into conspiracy theories.

So I thought, well, let's bring back the Pentaverate.

Y'all just kidnapped a Black man.

We've been kidnapping White men for years.

We wanted to give you an opportunity as well.

Forget about him.

Basically, we're the good guys.

We want you to trust us.

Why should I trust you, White man?

Whiter man.

Older Whiter man.

I don't know what the hell to make outta you.

I was just sitting around and I thought,

I grew up in a country where we like the government.

It was just Canada.

And we like experts.

You know what I mean?

And people who are experts are kind of

taking a beating right now.

But I thought, well,

what if there was a secret society of five people?

What if they were actually nice?

And what if I played all five people?

And what if I also played the guy

who was exposing the secret society?

And what if he was a local journalist?

Because I think local journalists

are taking a beating as well.

But I wanted it to be silly and fun,

and I wanted it to be cinematic.

And I wanted it to be a ride,

a fun ride like what I was hoping for

with Austin Powers and with Wayne's World.

I just thought that everyone's talking about

this serious thing in a very serious way.

I would like to talk about this serious thing

in a silly way, and do what I love to do,

which is characters.

The makeup man, Louie Zakarian,

same guy I worked with at Saturday Night Live, is a genius,

made these fantastic character makeups for me.

And I had a great, brilliant director in Tim Kirkby,

who's English and eccentric,

and was able to piece it all together.

I just think that water will find its right level.

And I think that once the people start to

trust the experts again,

and once the experts start to serve the people,

and that's also including everybody,

where it's all inclusive, I think we're gonna be okay.

And I have to think that way too

because I have three kids under the age of 10.

So I have to send out into the world

that which I would want it to be.