Here’s Why Mike Myers Hated the ‘Shrek’ Pitch at First
The premise of Shrek doesn’t shout “multi-billion-dollar mega-franchise” on paper — or when it’s shouted at you by Jeffrey Katzenberg after Saving Private Ryan made you cry.
It’s hard to envision a world where any actor besides Mike Myers plays the title character in Shrek, just as it’s hard to envision an alternate career path for the Saturday Night Live legend that goes any better for him than the one that led to him starring in four animated movies grossing a combined total of over $3 billion in the international box office. Today, Shrek is ubiquitous, and an entire generation of comedy-lovers best knows the Canadian impressionist as the voice of the crotchety, layered and preposterously Scottish ogre who taught us that appearances are less important than what’s on the inside, and that weed rats are best served either rotisserie style or in a stew.
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However, when DreamWorks co-founder Katzenberg first pitched Myers on the possibility of starring his feature film adaptation of the William Steig’s 1990 picture book, Myers was decidedly unimpressed by the offer, the setting Katzenberg chose to make it and even the name of the film — who wants to see a movie called Shrek???
Myers recently spoke to Vulture about his lengthy career in comedy classics, and he revealed that the most profitable arc of that journey started at the opening of Steven Spielberg’s World War II epic Saving Private Ryan in 1998 with an uncomfortable introduction by Katzenberg and his family. “I went to the premiere of Saving Private Ryan, and Jeffrey Katzenberg comes up to me afterward in the lobby and brings his daughters, who then do the dance sequence from Austin Powers,” Myers recalled.
“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 they’re doing the dance, and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s great. (READ A ROOM),’” Myers cracked about the Katzenbergs’ approach. “And then (Katzenberg) 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.’”
Much like the younger Katzenbergs’ dance routine, the pitch started off on the wrong foot. “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!’” Myers recalled, “So he said, ‘Just come down and see it.’”
Thankfully, Myers took Katzenberg up on his offer, and the animation magnate impressed the comedy star with the Shrek premise. In fact, Myers had a reading on the Shrek script that would ruffle some feathers today. “The fairy tale is a Eurocentric form, dealing with class, right?” Myers explained. “To say, ‘Yes, we know it’s Eurocentric but it can be more inventive and inclusive,’ and to have an African-American voice in Donkey in it, I thought it was brilliant.”
Myers would later take the job, make some tweaks to the part (specifically, adding the iconic Scottish accent), and today, the world of movies is better for it. However, as Myers noticed during the courting process, Shrek nearly sounded very different from his take on the character. “They had created this maquette, a little statue made of clay of all the characters, and Shrek looked exactly like Chris Farley,” Myers said. “I was at my third meeting, and I go, ‘Guys, was this offered to Chris Farley and then he died?’ Everyone looked at their shoes. I said, ‘No, but seriously, really?’ (Pause.) ‘No.’ ‘Oh, okay.’ I get in the parking lot, and I go, ‘I think this was Farley’s.’ It was! I was right, but they didn’t tell me.”
Imagine Myers' reaction when he found out they also tried to book Nicolas Cage to play Shrek — what was he doing in that swamp??
