How ‘Saving Private Ryan’ got Mike Myers cast in ‘Shrek’: “I was shellshocked”
Mike Myers is a legend of the comedy world, known for his unique sense of humour and memorable catchphrases that have shaped some of the most iconic comedies of all time. He rose to fame through his early appearances on Saturday Night Live in 1989 and became the first repertory player added to the show since 1987, creating a devoted fanbase through his one-liners and eccentric characters.
Myers followed SNL with cult classic films such as Wayne’s World and Austin Powers, becoming infamous for his catchphrases and unique voice work. However, one of his most celebrated characters came from an animated Dreamworks movie in 2001, a role which he found bizarrely.
Shrek is one of the most successful franchises of all time, with a stellar cast including Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz in the edgy fairy-tale about a reclusive ogre and his unlikely romance. Myers voices the lead character, using a Scottish accent and creating a uniquely cynical and elf-deprecating tone for the character as he enjoys his isolated lifestyle and laments about the abuse of power within the kingdom. It’s a classic for a reason, one that elevated Myers’ career to new heights and opened up his work to younger audiences.
Given Myer’s previous work and his status within the comedy world, you could imagine that the part was written for him and the casting process was carefully orchestrated to create this modern masterpiece, but strangely enough, the actor was approached in a spontaneous way at a screening for a very different film.
When asked about how he was cast in the project, he revealed, “I went to the premiere of Saving Private Ryan, and Jeffrey Katzenberg comes up to me afterwards in the lobby and brings his daughters, who then do the dance sequence from Austin Powers. This was after such a heavy movie, and I was in tears, because my parents were in World War II, and I was shell-shocked. And then he said, ‘Mike, would you ever do an animated movie?’ and I go ‘Sure.’ And he goes, ‘Well, we have an animated movie. It’s called Shrek.’”
Katzenberg is most well-known for his work on Shrek, and while his approach seems somewhat casual, perhaps the encounter was more intentional and planned than it seems. However, given the fact that they met at a screening of Saving Private Ryan, which couldn’t be more opposite to Shrek, this is hard to imagine.
Myers described his response to being told about Shrek, saying, “I go, ‘Well, that’s the worst fucking title I’ve ever heard in my life.’ It’s the sound you make after drinking too many Molson Canadians. ‘Agh! Shreck!’ So he said, ‘Just come down and see it.’ So I saw it, and I liked that it turned fairy tales on its head. I thought that was really, really smart. The fairy tale is a Eurocentric form, dealing with class, right? To say, ‘Yes, we know it’s Eurocentric but it can be more inventive and inclusive,’ and to have an African American voice Donkey in it, I thought it was brilliant”.
Shrek went on to become a global success, with lines such as ‘Ogre’s are like onions!’ and ‘That is a nice boulder’ becoming inseparable from popular culture as we know it. The film’s following only grows as the years go by, and who knew that this was thanks to a serendipitous encounter at the screening of Saving Private Ryan?
