After making the jump from Saturday Night Live to the big screen with Wayne's World
and its sequel, Mike Myers hit paydirt with his James Bond parody character Austin Powers
in three wildly successful movies.
He also served as the unforgettable voice of the green ogre Shrek for four films and
a series of spinoffs.
But then, as if Myers himself had received the "happily ever after" promised to his ogre
incarnation, he seemed to drop off the face of the earth … or, at least, the face of
Hollywood.
What happened to turn an unstoppable comedy juggernaut into a virtual recluse?
Here's why Mike Myers doesn't get many movie offers anymore.
"I've lost my mojo!"
Now is the time on Sprockets when we sue
Myers' blazing hot career hit a cool patch in 2000 when he walked away from Dieter,
another SNL sketch-inspired film that would have had him reprise the role of the quirky
German host of the fictional show Sprockets.
According to ABC News, Dieter was to be Myers' follow-up to his second Austin Powers film,
The Spy Who Shagged Me, but Myers bailed on the production, citing issues with the script
— which, interestingly enough, he'd co-written.
A series of lawsuits followed.
Universal sued Myers for $5 million.
Then, the production company making the film, Imagine Entertainment, sued Myers for an additional
$30 million.
Myers then countersued everyone, citing
"violations to [his] right of privacy, abuse of process, and fraud on the part of Universal."
Eventually, they all dropped their respective lawsuits, and they even agreed to work together
on another project: the live-action adaptation of the Dr. Seuss classic The Cat in the Hat.
But that didn't exactly go too well either…
"This cannot end well…"
A bungled childhood classic
While its abysmal Rotten Tomatoes rating of 10 percent should indicate what a flop The
Cat in the Hat was, the devil was in the details of Myers' take on the seminal children's classic.
Almost every review cited the filmmakers' bewildering choice to infuse the tale ofZ
guest with decidedly off-tone and crude humor.
But the more particularly scathing criticisms fell directly at Myers' feet, like in The
Dallas Observer's takedown, titled "Kitty Litter," which stated,
"The producers may as well have skipped the hassle of securing licensing rights and simply
called this mess Mike Myers: A**hole in Fur."
Ouch.
"I've chopped it off. Well, that's interesting because --- SON OF A B----!!""
Even Dr. Seuss' own wife, Audrey Stone Geisel, got involved, subsequently forbidding any
more live action adaptations of her husband's work.
We're not 100% sure exactly when The Cat in the Hat became derailed, but one thing's for
certain: Myers' supposed snobby behavior must have had something to do with it.
Darkness behind the laughter
In an interview with The A.V.
Club, Myers' The Cat in the Hat co-star Amy Hill painted a pretty unflattering portrait
of the film's lead.
She characterized Myers as a "diva" who constantly made the cast and crew wait while he micromanaged
the entire production.
And Hill isn't the only former collaborator to rake Myers over the coals.
In a 2008 EW profile of Myers, Wayne's World director Penelope Spheeris got her own digs
in, describing him as "emotionally needy" and saying he
"got more difficult as the shoot went along."
But perhaps her most telling line from the interview was her remark,
"Maybe he could open, like, a children's hospital to clean up his rep.
He's got to do something pretty quick."
Yet another scorned cohort, Rob Fried, who produced So I Married an Axe Murderer, put
things in even starker terms, telling The Telegraph,
"I think Mike's a visionary, but his way of getting what he wants is to ... threaten and
express anger."
All in all, It's a pretty damning list of burned professional bridges, and one that's
likely not gone unnoticed by studios and future collaborators alike.
No love for The Love Guru
Younger audiences who may not associate Myers with Austin Powers or Shrek probably recognize
his name from one of his later, less-than-stellar flicks: The Love Guru.
The 2008 comedy presented Myers as, well, a love guru whose dream is to be featured
on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
He brought his Austin Powers costar Verne Troyer to the film along with several big
names, including Justin Timberlake, Jessica Alba, and Ben Kingsley.
Despite all that star power, the movie bombed hard.
Against a budget of $62 million — not to mention advertising costs — the movie only
brought in a worldwide gross of $40 million and change.
It struggled against fellow comedy Get Smart as well as The Incredible Hulk, marking a
particularly painful failure during a bad year for Paramount.
Myers hasn't done much since — and it isn't hard to imagine that studios might still be
a little gun shy about handing Myers the reins to another major movie.
It's a passion, not a paycheck
Myers is a legendary comedian who's shown he's got chops on both the small and big screens.
For him, it's more about passion than just a willingness to show up and play the game.
Maybe that's why why he's turned out some surprising roles in films like Studio 54 and
Inglourious Basterds.
In a rare print interview with GQ, Myers described his decision to portray club owner Steve Rubell
in Studio 54 by saying, "I loved that character so much and loved that world."
He made a similar statement in a promotional interview for Inglourious Basterds when he
basically said he took the unusually serious role just for the chance to work with director
Quentin Tarantino.
As plenty of other comedians have learned, it's difficult to pull off that leap from
silly stuff into more serious fare, but Myers seems intent on trying, whether his fans follow
him or not.
Super-meh
Another one of Myers' out-of-the box projects is his 2014 documentary Supermensch, which
profiles the life of Shep Gordon, a legendary music manager whose clients ranged from Luther
Vandross to Alice Cooper.
In fact, according to The Guardian, shock rocker Alice Cooper served as the original
connective tissue between Gordon and Myers through his cameo in the first Wayne's World
movie.
Myers had to meet with Cooper's manager, Gordon, and immediately took a liking to the man.
Supermensch is a moving story of a professional association that turned into a wonderful friendship.
Unfortunately, with a domestic box office gross of only $213,064, it's one that likely
didn't make investors any money.
This goes without saying, but that's never a great thing to have to report when you've
got your hand out for funding the next time around.
What's going on with The Gong Show?
"On my tombstone, it will read… 'here lies Tommy Maitland, British entertainer, please
check the coffin to make sure he's actually dead."
Since the summer of 2017, Myers has been hosting ABC's reboot of The Gong Show, only he's been
doing so in heavy disguise as fictional English comedian Tommy Maitland.
Donning an intentionally bad toupee, prosthetic jowls, and baby blue contacts, Myers transformed
into Maitland with so little fanfare that Myers even did press in character, refusing
to admit the ruse.
Months later, Myers finally opened up about his role after the show was greenlit for a
second season.
Myers told The Wrap,
"It is with great delight that I can finally admit that there is indeed a Tommy Maitland,
and that I portray him."
He's chosen dad life over Hollywood life
In addition to sticking to a tight schedule with his bizarre TV gig, the actor has been
busy playing a couple of other major roles: namely, husband and father.
In 2015, he and his wife Kelly Tisdale welcomed a new addition to their family — a daughter
named Paulina Kathleen.
She's the latest in a line of kids that includes son Spike and daughter Sunday Molly.
"I have three kids now."
"And how old, Spike's the oldest, right?"
"Spike's, um, five and…"
"Does he have a Canadian accent?"
"No, no, no!"
Fatherhood seems pretty important to Myers.
And given how genuinely excited and happy becoming a dad has made him, it's hard to
imagine that the comedy legend is eager to star in a major Hollywood production that
would involve long hours and a disruptive traveling schedule.
For the time being, it looks like Myers wants to stick close to his favorite cast and crew
— his family.
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