Rob Lowe Had a Religious Experience Acting Opposite Fat Bastard in ‘Austin Powers 2’
It’s been just over 25 years since the release of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, the movie that continued the adventures of Mike Myers’ cryogenically-frozen ‘60s superspy, while doing its part for the environmental movement by recycling 70 to 80 percent of the jokes from the first movie.
One of the more welcome additions to The Spy Who Shagged Me was Rob Lowe, who stepped in to play the younger version of Dr. Evil’s number two in command: Number 2.
When Lowe sat down for a recent interview with Rich Eisen, naturally his work in the Austin Powers sequel came up, and Lowe was surprisingly poetic when describing the process of working with one of cinema’s most revolting characters. Lowe told Eisen that showing up for work at the Spy Who Shagged Me set was the “polar opposite” of acting in another classic ‘90s comedy, Tommy Boy. While the Chris Farley-David Spade vehicle was “fun” to make (but not fun enough to put his name on it, I guess), they had “no idea” that they were “making anything of significance. Zero.”
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Austin Powers, on the other hand, was already a legit cultural phenomenon by the time Lowe joined the franchise, and Lowe was assured of Myers’ brilliance. During one scene Lowe was in, set in Dr. Evil’s lair, Myers was dressed as the (arguably regrettable) “Fat Bastard” character. “He ad-libs ‘Mmmm… that looks like a baby,’” Lowe recalled, “then (sings) ‘I want my baby back, baby back, baby back ribs.’”
“That’s when you go, ‘I’m in the presence of comedy channelled directly from God on high,’” Lowe claimed. Of course, whether or not some kind of supreme being ignored the tragedies of the world in order to focus their attention on guiding the improvisations of a comedian in a latex bodysuit joking about eating a baby is debatable.
When asked whether or not he was able to keep his shit together during the scene, or if he broke down laughing, Lowe responded, “I don’t break.” The reason for this stems from another Myers movie. While shooting Wayne’s World, Lowe totally lost it while filming the scene where Garth is tinkering with a robotic hand. “It makes no sense. It’s in the movie for no reason, it doesn’t advance the plot,” Lowe argued.
“I broke so badly then that I swore that I would never do it (again),” Lowe admitted. “Which is sad because I’m never in blooper reels. So if you look at Parks and Rec, all the blooper reels, I’m never in them. I don’t break.”
It’s true, looking back at the Parks and Recreation blooper reels, even during one take in which Amy Poehler was accidentally smacked on the head by a boom mic, while everyone else cracked up, Lowe’s expression barely changed. `
Perhaps there’s a way to synthesize Rob Lowe’s blood and inject it into Ryan Gosling.
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