With Shrek The Third set to storm the box office, man of many faces Mike Myers is preparing to actually appear as a human in another movie, Lawrie Masterson reports.
Four years after he was last actually seen in a movie, Shrek star Mike Myers is getting set to go back in front of the camera.
In his first live-acting (as opposed to voice-acting) job since the title role in Dr Seuss's The Cat In The Hat, Myers will begin shooting The Love Guru in his home town, Toronto, in August.
He'll play a human being, a Canadian who was raised in an Indian ashram.
He (Myers' character) becomes a guru and is hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs (ice-hockey team) to work with a player who's sort of gone off the rails,'' says Myers, an avid hockey fan who stillplays in a minor competition.
I've been trying to make a hockey movie in any kind of incarnation my entire career, but this is more about growing up and is set against hockey.
As much as Jerry Maguire (1996) was about football, this is about hockey.''
Myers, star of the three Austin Powers movies and the title voice of the Shrek franchise, also has a project to follow The Love Guru - he'll play The Who's manic drummer, Keith Moon, after having been approached personally by the iconic band's singer, Roger Daltrey.
The film's working title is See Me,Feel Me: Keith Moon Naked For Your Pleasure.
Moon the Loon'', whose chaotic drumming style was matched by his lifestyle and appetite for destruction, died of a drug overdose in London on September 7, 1978. He was 31.
Myers, 43, certainly bears a facial resemblance to Moon _ ``except his eyes were huge, and I have small, Dianne Wiest-like eyes, I have decided'' - butsays it never occurred to him to ask Daltrey why he approached him when they first met on the set of Goldmember (2002).
I was too nervous that Roger Daltrey was there and I was dressed as Dr Evil; it was one of those things,'' he explains.
That's what happens when I do the Austin Powers movies and it's a Dr Evil day. Friends will come by, or people I haven't met, and I'll catch myself in a mirror as I'm talking.
It's just a very strange combination.
But Roger Daltrey said: 'We'd like you to play Keith Moon' and I felt like I'd been hit by lightning, because I'd wanted to do that my whole life.
I love The Who.
I loved Keith's drumming and the world of rock'n'roll in the '60s and '70s _ it's fascinating.
A draft has come in, and Donald hasdone a brilliant job, so I'm excited.''
Myers' older brothers, Peter and Paul, grew up playing music _ so, of course, he was the drummer.
My head is mostly scar tissue,'' Myers says, straight-faced.
When you're the youngest of three, in hockey you end up in goal and in music you end up behind the drums.''
Right now, Myers is set for another box-office bonanza with Shrek The Third, which had its Australian premiere in Sydney on Tuesday.
It reunites him with Cameron Diaz (Princess Fiona), Eddie Murphy (Donkey) and Antonio Banderas (PussIn Boots).
This time around, the big green ogre is faced with self-doubts when his frogger-in-law, King Harold (John Cleese), suddenly croaks, leaving Shrek next inline to rule Far Far Away unless hecan come up with an alternative.
To complicate matters, it seems Fiona is in a delicate condition and Shrek isn't sure whether he's ready forfatherhood.
I was bred to play this part,'' Myers says. I come from a country that struggles with identity and self-esteem.
You know, Canada's a country of ingredients without a cuisine; we're a country of musicians without an indigenous instrument .
..
I said to an American friend of mine recently: 'So, what do you guys think about Canada?
' And he went: `We don't.'''
On the other hand, Myers does admit to a feeling of pride about the achievements of the two previous Shrek movies, which have grossed a total of about $1.7 billion worldwide.
It's like being the custodian of the Eiffel Tower or something, at thispoint,'' he says.
It's, like, in the culture just from what I get reflected back at me.
And it's great that it's got global reach and is regionally adaptive.
I'm also proud of that expression Imade up just now.''
The good news about other actors dubbing Shrek in non-English-speaking countries is that It doesn't affect my foreign back-end (share of theprofits), which makes me very, veryhappy _ because, of course, thatwas my first concern.''
Myers, who has been strapped on the front of this train'' since he joined the famed Second City comedy troupe in Toronto when he was just out of high school, attributes some of hissuccess to the fact that his comedy is not bloodthirsty''.
You can gnaw on somebody, but youcan't break the skin,'' he says.
If it feels like friendly gnawing, it'sall good. If it feels like an attack, then please don't attack me.
I just feel very grateful that I had this idea about Austin Powers and I gotto do it; I also had this idea aboutWayne's World, and I got to do it - anditkind of works.
I usually write everything I do, but occasionally great things are handed to you - like Shrek.''
We welcome your comments on this story.
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Please provide your full name. We also require a working email address - not for publication, but for verification.
The location field is optional.
News RSS