Mike Myers fully committed to the hilarious darkness of Dr. Evil during his “Austin Powers” reign, according to director Jay Roach.
Myers played both the titular character and multiple other ensemble roles, including most famously Powers’ nemesis, Dr. Evil. Roach wrote in a piece for Vulture that eccentric comedian Myers got lost in his own world for the film franchise, and even became “possessed” by the Dr. Evil character to improvise in scenes.
“Mike’s characters are often disconnected from our reality and think more of themselves than is realistic. It’s a delusion that’s so funny to watch. If you have a character who’s deeply at odds with their own reality, you’re going to have predicaments,” Roach said. “What Mike loves most are characters who straddle silliness and intelligence.”
Roach continued, “Austin was fun — the bad teeth and the hair all over his body — but I always thought Mike’s deepest laughter came from the smart, specific humor of Dr. Evil.”
In fact, Myers was so dedicated to getting into character for Dr. Evil that he would go off script.
“In the first movie, he’s in a therapy session and he starts to riff: ‘When he was insolent as a child, he was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds; he took luge lessons; his father claimed to have invented the question mark.’ Some of that run was written, but some was just Mike improvising,” Roach said. “Because Dr. Evil looks so different from Mike, I feel like it gave him permission to lose himself more. It’s like he was possessed by that character.”
Roach credited Myers for coming up “with his own complete world” for the “Austin Powers” films.
“Directing ‘Austin Powers’ was a life-changing event for me because I had no directing career and no hope of finding one,” Roach said. “Mike had this blind faith in me, and it didn’t seem rational; I really was not qualified to get that job. But we did have a shared vision.”
Roach praised Myers’ “encyclopedic sense of humor” that encompassed allusions to “Monty Python” and “Young Frankenstein,” as well as Bertolt Brecht.
“Working with him was like going to comedy school,” Roach said. “Mike’s enjoyment of his own characters is letting himself get lost in them and hoping you’ll get lost in them too. Committing like that is the only way you can be really, truly funny.”
The filmmaker later went on to helm political true crime drama “Bombshell” along with his comedy features.
And Myers didn’t let go of Dr. Evil for long: The actor reprised the character in 2018 to mock President Donald Trump.
