Mike Myers is 50 years old, yet he seems both much younger and far older than his age. Maybe that’s because it’s been so long since his last live-action film appearance — Inglourious Basterds came out in 2009, and The Love Guru a year earlier. So what’s he been up to? That’s what GQ wanted to know, so they spoke to Myers in a lengthy, must-read interview that touches on everything from Austin Powers to Colonel Sanders paintings to a letter he received from a Beatle.
Is it really true that the very last letter George Harrison wrote in his life was to you?
Yes. That’s mind-blowing, dude, for the son of a Liverpudlian, a person who worships the Beatles. The letter came on the day of Austin Powers 3 when we were shooting the scene where Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Steven Spielberg, Danny DeVito, Kevin Spacey are doing the Hollywood movie version of Austin Powers’s life as directed by Steven Spielberg, and it was the day George Harrison died.
Had you ever had any contact with him before then?
No. And then I got this letter on that day. I cried like a baby, and it’s prominently displayed in my house. He says “…sitting here with my Dr. Evil doll…I just wanted to let you know I’ve been looking all over Europe for a mini-you doll.” And he says, “Dr. Evil says frickin'” but any good Scouser dad will tell you it’s actually ‘friggin’ as in a ‘four of fish and finger pie’, if you get my drift.” He said, “thanks for the movies, so much fun.” Dude, I can’t even. On the [Beatles] Anthology special I spoke about how I still get teary thinking of that last shot [in A Hard Day’s Night] with the helicopter and all the 8-by-10s and it says B-E-A-T-L-E-S on the door and the helicopter takes off. I love the spirit of that film so much, that spirit got into Austin Powers and Wayne’s World, which is that it’s a party. And he said [in his letter] “I’m sorry I left you on the helicopter that day, I promise I won’t do it again.”
Did you ever learn how he came to be writing this to you?
Yeah, but I can’t really speak of it. But it is fantastic and sad and awesome, and this is the magic that I’m talking about that I feel very grateful and privileged to be part of it.
Harrison and Myers have a lot in common: they both went to India to make their worst art.
