Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Mike Myers

Episode Date: May 15, 2022

Mike Meyers is among the comedy greats who have walked the halls of Saturday Night Live, with his popular “Wayne’s World” sketch becoming an even more popular movie. After leaving SNL he introduced the world to the archenemies Austin Powers and Dr. Evil, and went on to voice a big green ogre named Shrek in a multi-billion dollar franchise. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the actor to talk about returning to the spotlight after nearly a decade away with his new Netflix series, The Pentaverate. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Man, do I have a treat for you today with a comedy legend, Mike Myers. I won't insult you with a long introduction to Mr. Mike Myers, but you know him well. Burst onto the scene on Saturday Night Live in 1988, had his first show in January of 1989, introduced us to characters like Wayne of Wayne's World, Linda Richmond, Dieter, the German talk show host with the show Sprockets, Simon. I mean, the list goes on. It's too long. Of course, Wayne's World blew up into two huge movies. And then, of course, later came Austin Powers, two sequels together, pushed up against a billion dollars altogether. Oh, by the way, Shrek.

He's also the voice of Shrek. So Mike's latest project is something for Netflix, a series called the Pentavory. something he's been working on for a long time. I was very excited to talk to Mike because he hasn't done anything big or splashy in the last few years, and you'll hear why. Three young kids, he wanted to be present for them. He'd done a lot of good things in his career could take the time to be with his kids. And this is kind of his return.

He'd had roles in more serious movies, smaller roles in glorious bastards he was in, Bohemian Rhapsody as well. But as far as a big leading role in a comedy, this is his return after some time away. I'll let him explain it. But it's basically a, you know, it's the Illuminati, except they're nice. It's a benevolent Illuminati, five men who control everything that happens in the world dating back to, I think, the 14th century. But I'll let him explain all of it to you. We should tell you that Mike and I got together 101 stories above New York City at Hudson Yards on the west side of Manhattan.

The restaurant is called Peak. It is a phenomenal place for the view of. alone. The food I'm told is excellent too, but the view is unlike anything you've seen in New York City. And then you can step outside into something called the edge, which is an outdoor space, 101 stories up, where you get the full view of all of it. Why are we there? Because the exterior shots for the headquarters of the pentaveret on the show are of the edge, because it almost looks like a helicopter pad. So the helicopters land there, they go in, they decide the fate of the world. But I'll let him explain. Why have me do it when you have a comedy genius and a comedy icon waiting on the other side?

So please sit back, relax, and enjoy a great conversation. One you don't hear very often, which is what I love about it. From Mike Myers right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Everybody happy? I'm happy. Generally speaking? Yeah. There's some areas of my life I'd like to improve, but for most part, I'm happy. Let's get into those, Mike. Hi, I'm an extrovert. Coria. You look great, by the way. Isn't it a great day? See? Hi.

He's working the room. He's a happy man. I'm an extrovert. I smile when I talk. That's what makes me charming. I also don't open my eyes. I'm going to say the eyes are closed too, which is extra haunting. How are you?

Good? People do that all the time. I feel like I've seen that in some of your characters, actually. Yeah. Which one at the moment? So let's talk about the series that has us here. Yes. In the headquarters.

of this organization, which you describe how? Who are these five men? The Pantavarit is a secret organization of five learned men who, since the Black Plague, have been secretly controlling the world. But unlike other secret organizations that broker power, these guys are nice. And so they're a benevolent secret organization.

Just when things happen that make no sense, it was the pentabrit. When, you know, we don't, we're kind of like the ball bearings of the world, seemingly not important, but without ball bearings, nothing gets done. We try and put English on the ball. We don't control the world. We guide the world and have been in different iterations since 1437. So this has been going on since the 15th century in your mind.

Correct. Yes. And as you pointed out a moment ago, this actually was born about 30 years ago. So I married an axe murder. The seed was planted back then. So this has clearly been kicking around in your mind. And it was, you know, 20 years before that. Really? I have always been obsessed with secret organizations.

There is something about, like, you know, even I was on the Today Show this morning. I saw. And they had a map of the weather map. but they didn't have Canada on it. And I was like, I guess we don't get weather, huh? America. And there's just something about coming from Canada is like coming from a secret organization

where nobody has any idea of who we are. We're a land without classical music, without culture for export in the form of cuisine. There is cuisine, and don't say Putin, that's a topping. And we are a country that doesn't have culture for export much. Even our movies, we tend to be a place where American movies shoot their movies. Well, Al Roker is a member of the Illuminati who controls the weather. Yes, that's just a fact.

That's just a fact. You were right about that. Yes. Except you do export great comedy, great actors that make the movies. So what is it about Canada that, on a per capita basis, gives us so much comedy and so many great actors and actresses. I think it's a little bit that, you know, the Canadians invented the blue helmets of the United Nations.

We are an observer nation. And while we are a multicultural society, and we benefit from that greatly, America sought to be a salad bowl, sorry, a melting pot, and Canada wanted to be a salad bowl. So you can be, everybody's house, are little shrines or embassies to the country that their parents came from.

So my parents, you know, there's nobody more English than an Englishman who no longer lives in England. And I think that that's influenced my love of culture and how people talk and how they do stuff, you know. And boy, do we see that in this series. Right. Eight characters in total, including, we won't give you. away too much, but four members of the pentaparit, because there's one now, vacancy, and opening. So how did you select who those, let's just start with those four, who they were going to be?

They're all very specific guys. Are those particular cultures or accents or kinds of people that fascinate you and you think are funny? Well, you know, the battlefront right now for democracy, and I know this is going to sound a little heavy, But is the Ideosphere. It's ideas. That's the main area of truth or not truth. And to me, I wanted to have, so there's always been a centralis, a guy who is first amongst equals.

He's the center guy. Then we have two righties and two lefties, usually, in the pentamerent. And we came on. up with a character, I came up with a character of Bruce Baldwin. He's an Australian media mogul. He is a reformed right-wing misinformer, shall we say, propagandist at its worst. But he represents big business and corporate interests. Then to his left is Michoud Ivanov, who was expelled from Putin's oligarchy, he represents people who believe in spirits, like in religion. And so on the council, he'll often, you know, advocate for that part of society.

And then we have, on the far left, we had Jason Eccleston, who's sort of a hippie, He's sort of a guy who talks like this with a real artist voice. And he invented the computer mentor. He represents the far left. And then center left is Shep Gordon. That's great. Who is Alice Cooper's manager, my friend Shep. I just, I asked him.

He's seen it. He said yes. And he's from New York. And he talks like this. And he's like, listen, let's just sit down and talk this through. This is crazy. One of those guys who's able to. applied lubricative arts to solve things.

And a great laugh, I should point out. Which he does have a great laugh. And so that's how I designed it. I wanted to have a center, center right, center left, far right, far left. And that's how they pick new members. Well, I'm glad you sort of explain that because I think people at first would go, oh, great, Mike Myers is doing his thing again. There's aesthetics, a different character.

It's an accent. It's funny. But there is an overlay of kind of a commentary about what we're seeing in the world today, isn't there? Yeah. Well, it's a fantasy for me. You know, we always talked about secret organizations being bad people and being nefarious.

And one of the problems is, is then they start to applying that to people who are experts. And experts, you know, I grew up in government housing and went to a public school and took public transport. For me, the government is the great level playing field. and I benefit from experts. And experts for me are not the elite. They're the high tide that floats all boats.

So I'm not anti-elites. So I thought, well, let's just invert it. What if all these elites, these experts, were actually benevolent? More Jonas Salk, you know, I mean, who didn't make a penny off the polio vaccine. And all of the people, all of the spinoff, not just Teflon and the internet, but all of the GPS, all of the spin-off of expertise. And I just think that what sort of happened in the last 20 years is that there's an anti-expert.

And the whole idea of the show for me is that the people need to trust the experts, right? And there is reasons why they don't. But the experts need to serve the people. And when those two things happen in a country as brilliant as the United States that has so many genius people, who have agency, you know what I mean? Having lived in England where it's a little who do you think you are and coming to America where it's who do you want to be.

As a Canadian, I love England. Don't get me wrong, but I love who do you want to be. And this country has been so fantastic to me. And I'm a citizen of the United States and England and Canada. I'm an international man of mystery. Oh, start. We got one, guys. Yes, there you go.

All right, there. One for the kids. You know, this show is really about what kind of world do we want to live in? Do we want experts to help us? I know that, you know, when my kid broke his collarbone or whatever and he's in that MRI, I'm going, I like experts. You know what I mean? I like science. How do we get experts and people

where we all benefit, where it's a common wealth? And for me, I'm just looking for a level playing field. And I grew up in a country where I do not distrust the Canadian government. That doesn't mean I trust everything. But as a whole, I do feel that what we should be looking at is good governance

that Trudeau, the senior, had said in his treatise on politics, which is the only reason that a free man in democracy gives any man power is because they can prove that they are just and they are competent. If we as a public insist on fairness and competence, we could see America with the space race Hoover Dam WPA, World War II

Marshall Plan you name it America when the public sector and the private sector get together this is it you know and this is if I had a political philosophy

as I'm a Trudeauvian Democrat and I believe that if there's two main policies happening in the world between capitalism, which I am a capitalist, and democracy, and I would die and have put my children into the army to die for democracy. I think it should be, but by the grace of democracy goes capitalism. Not but by the grace of capitalism goes democracy. And I think once that big change happens, so for me, the secret organization that is the Pentavert is really the Canadian government, which is it's a secret organization that's

benevolent. You know what I mean? My school had a pool, a gym, an ice rink, and a million dollar television studio. And there was two cultural revolutions when I was growing up. One was in China. And the other one was in Canada, which was to create Canadian culture. And I can see it now in Korea with K-pop and all that. And they work.

Cultural movements. work. The Chinese one, not so much. Yeah, I'm going to say that. Not so much. Yeah. But the one in Canada did. It is interesting that being an expert now. Was that a long answer? I'm sorry. No, it's so fascinating. Oh, okay. Cool.

We've got time. The sort of the anti. And you'll cut it down to just international manner. Yeah, it's it. It'll be an eight-second moment. It'll go viral. It'll be great for you. But it is interesting, especially during, I know you conceived of this long before COVID and started, but all of this came to be. where if you are a, you know, internationally renowned infection disease expert.

Yes. You are, people call for your arrest because he suggests you should wear a mask or whatever it is. There's this sort of strain of anti-experty. Like not being told what to do, which you kind of get at in the series. I was watching the first few episodes and thinking, my God, that looks like a lot of work.

It was a lot of work. You know what I mean? Just like you got to get the prosthetic and the makeup for that guy. and then turn and talk to maybe a green screen or however you did it. How did you approach what is really a big project? Well, I had a lot of help. Producers were fantastic.

Tim Kirkby, the director, in my estimation, is a genius. And he's this eccentric British guy. Whatever you think an English director who does bizarre comedy looks like, Tim looks like. And he was like, it's so hard. Right, man, yeah. Really, we'll get there. Don't worry, yeah.

And I'm like, wow, dude. He worked it all out. A lot of storyboarding, lots of rehearsals, and he just did such a fantastic job. And he's funny himself. A lot of his jokes got into the script, too. Oh, is that right? Yeah, it was a fantastic collaboration.

I hunted him down for two years. Did you really? Yes. And what did you know him from? Why did you want him so badly? He did a British comedy series called Look Around You, which is a parody of English educational films. And if that isn't the definition of rescherche, I don't know what is.

And it's so dry, dude. It's just drier than dry and stylish for days. And I wanted this show to have a cinematic quality. I wanted it, I like a lot of comedy. But what I hadn't seen in a while is scope. I hadn't seen helicopter shots. I hadn't seen, you know what I mean? Yeah.

And it reminds me, everything for me is I have to see things as a toy chest. And there was more than anything, I was just gathering my toy chest. I was like, I want a red bad guy helicopter, an alouette helicopter. I wanted a train, a secret train, a secret train station. I wanted the headquarters to be hiding in plain sight but have a menacing profile. I wanted it to be global. I love things that are global.

I think that's sort of a influence of being Canadian and British is we're not a centrist, you know. We're more global. and I love history. That's the other thing too. And I love why did certain things happen? You know, like why are pubs closed at 11 o'clock? Oh, because the munitions workers and time, you know,

changing of the clocks forward and clocks backwards is for farmers. It's like all that stuff. Yeah, the quirks of history. So given that you had to kind of shoot this in pieces in your different character, and you don't know what it's going to look like or how it's going to turn out. What was your reaction when you finally sat down and saw an episode piece together?

Thrilled. I was thrilled. I really love this show. I'm very, very proud of it. Tim did a great job. Joseph Krings, the editor. I mean, first thing I did was hire Joseph Krings. He edited Super Minch, a documentary I did on Shep Gordon. And that was my first hire.

I said, are you available? Can you be part of the writing process and part of the pre-production process and just tell us what we need. So he was putting it together as we went, and he was a huge, you know, it's kind of a mosaic, you know. But it was so much fun.

It was in England. My brother was my stunt double. So sometimes when I'm with somebody, but somebody said, that's my brother, Paul. Is that right? And the greatest, we had the greatest time, you know what I mean? That's the way to do it, huh? Yeah, so we would shoot, come back, each go to our rooms, have a shower, come back and watch amazing British music television and order up.

It's like your kids again. It was fun. That's really cool. That was a really great. And he did a great job. This easily could have been a movie. This could have been your next Austin Powers. Why did you decide to make it a six-part series?

Because I love the bingeable arts. I love, I think that bingeability is, you know, it's the, it has a structure of a three-act movie, six episodes, but you, the challenge of building in cliffhangers was very exciting for me. So there's a cliffhanger at the end of each thing. And having three kids, too, the thing I love is when I can hope. the kids and they do, and then what happened? And then what happened? And then what happened? So it's sharpened my storytelling. And I think that the bingeable arts of those cliffhangers was exactly what I was doing in the last 10 years.

Well, I was going to say, in the last 10 years you've been with your three children. And you're in a position in your life where you can be selective. You don't have to jump on everything. It comes across your desk, I'm sure. Yeah. So what made you feel like this was the right time to say, oh, In some ways, Mike Myers is back, which is what people are saying. Well, I never went anywhere.

No, I know. I understand. I did a plate of British General in Inglorious Bastards, which was a joy. I'm in the new David O. Russell film that's coming out. I was in Bohemian Rhapsody as the record executive who didn't believe in Bohemian Rhapsody, which was super, super fun. and it's just being I

I just wanted to work on stuff I wanted to work on and you know I came from government-assisted housing in Toronto my dad sold encyclopedias my mom worked in the office of a factory I never thought anything was going to happen I didn't think Saturday Night Live was going to be around

for me to be on it I didn't think I would be on the show. I didn't think I would do well in the show. I now see that I did okay on the show. I thought I was being fired every week. Doesn't everyone on the show think they're being fired every week? Or most people? Most people.

Yeah. There are some who have better mental health than I did. Wayne's World was me growing up in Scarborough, Ontario. Axe murderer was every Scottish family in Canada. and a little bit my dad. You know, everything had to be personal. Everything is autobiographical. And, you know, the Shrex took up a long time.

There was four or five of them. Four of them. I think four, yeah. And you spend a lot of time, I can say this now, in success management. That eats up a lot of your time. So, which is a great first world problem, place to be, but it's sort of like, you know, when the Shrex come out, that's a worldwide tour.

That's about four months, you know what I mean? And I write my own stuff, and it sometimes takes longer. This was about a year and a half. That's about the average. And I really, you know, I love creating stuff. I like making stuff. So when I'm not doing that, I paint toy soldiers.

Truthfully, I do. Yeah. And I have a whole mythical world of two armies. It's Nutopia versus fascistia. Oh, is that right? Yes. Oh, so you've created a universe. I have, yeah.

Oh. And for all of my frustrations of where the world is going, this is something I did with my father, and the Royal Engineers, the British Army, we did this together, and I never stopped doing it. And the kids, dude, the kids, you know, the days are long, but the years are short, and I didn't want to, you know,

I think my brother sat me down and said, you do not want to miss this first 10 years because it goes. Boy, is that so? Yeah, it's amazing. And Adam Sandler said the loveliest thing. When he heard that my wife, Kelly, was pregnant, he just called me out of the blue,

just a sweet, sweet call and said, you know that feeling, Mike, you have when you fall in love for the first time at the age of 12 and your ribs hurt and you can't believe it? Because that's what having a kid is every day. And he's absolutely right. It's the most loveliest piece of advice. And he said, dude, don't do anything you don't want to do.

Just hang tight. So I've taken Adam's words to heart. Just one of the loveliest phone calls I've ever received from anybody, just out of the blue. That's beautiful. Yeah. And it really is true. I've got a 14 and a 12-year-old. Right.

And you just make that conscious effort. I could be here or I could be there. Now, I'm going to be here. Yeah. Family vacations become, you know, when do they get out of school and all that stuff. And I think I made the right choice. So I'm thrilled. Absolutely.

I sort of figured out how this whole having three kids under the age of 10, then I went, you know what? My wife, Kelly, was like, I think you need to make something. It's time. It's time. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Mike Myers right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Mike Myers.

Now, do your kids, have they reached the age where they catch Austin Powers on TV? And they go, boy, that's funny, Dad. Have they seen your stuff? They've seen my stuff. Not all of it. They're so incredibly different. Like, my son, the oldest, is on earth. He has to touch things.

He has to balance stuff. My middle daughter is in the sky. She, like, bumps into stuff. It's all ideas and all thoughts. And my youngest is in Hades, who will find the, any Faberger egg in any room, the equivalent of.

and we'll smash it. Spike's like, I can't wait to be an actor. Sunday's like, I'm not sure. And Paulina, I said, Pauline, you have to go to bed now, dude. And she goes, you're boring. Boring. What? You're boring.

Sometimes I can go on about stuff, but, you know, she's five. And she reached back from my book. I wrote a book on Canada. And she went, this book is boring. Oh. And threw it on the ground. Wow. And I was like, well, some parts of it that may be a bit of a polemic.

You start defending a girl five-year-old. You know, it's very hard to make the second part of the second act sing. But anyways. Do they have favorites of your movies? They don't like Shrek. What? They love Cat in the Hat, and Spike is obsessed with Dr. Evil. Sure.

Shrek. I mean, I thought that would be the layup. Everybody loves Shrek. No. It's funny. So they went to... What's the American dream? But at the time, so I can't call it.

The mall? Yeah. At the height of the thing, I called it Omicron dream for a while there. But American dream. Oh yeah, I think I'm looking at it. Evidently, I haven't been to it, but there's a giant Shrek. And so Spike calls me out and he's like, as a giant Shrek I have to swim with. Like, I'm sorry?

It's all your fault. Yeah, it's all your fault. This is right about now actually. the 25th anniversary of Boston Powers. I think it came out in early May of 97. As you look back on that now, why do you think it took off the way it did? Obviously, it's hysterically funny,

but there was something particular to that. I have no idea. Really? Yeah, I thought you would have had to have grown up in my house to get it. My dad worshipped Bert Bachrach. You know, James Bond was massive in our house. you know, Scottish but British,

British, you know, culture. I think my mom used to say all her favorite characters are happy survivors. My mom gave me some great advice. She had said,

don't forget that the villain is the hero of his own story. That was a big influence on Dr. Evil. And she said, the world loves happy survival. And she said, you know, Barney Rubble, Bugs Bunny, Tony Curtis, Bruce Willis in Diehard. Happy Survivors.

And the essence, my mom also said the essence of a hero is plasticity, the ability to change. The essence of a villain is being steadfast, which I thought was a great piece of advice. that's a pretty serious maternal wisdom right there. Yeah, my mom studied acting. I know, it's incredible. And, you know, I would go see plays with my mom, and she'd go, that one's good after four seconds. And then I don't care for that one much.

He's too, look at me, yo. Yeah, old-timey, you know, expressions for her acting, but she was spot on. She had the greatest taste in acting. Well, I love what you say, too. Almost everything you've ever done has been informed. by your parents who you love so much, who immigrated to Canada from Liverpool,

that there's some of them in almost everything you've ever done. I'm trying to do the same with my kids. I'm trying to have it be that their happiest place is our house. You know what I mean? And they had their flaws. You know, they're doing their best. They're from an older generation, my parents. But they were great producers of my childhood.

And that's, Kelly is a fantastic mother, great producer of, and I try my best to produce their childhood as well to make sure that they have memories, you know. When did you realize, obviously your mother being an actor, when did you realize that performance was your thing, that this is not only a hobby, but perhaps a career. Was it sometime at Second City? Was it before that? It was before that.

I think, you know, Kurt Vonnegut talks about when your peephole opens up, you know, your consciousness. I think when my consciousness opened up, I knew I wanted to make things. My parents had created for us this notion that, certainly in comedy, my dad worshipped comedians. My dad was very interesting

when it came to entertainers. He didn't see color, religion, nationality. He always felt that all of these people were from Shobiznia. and always impart to us that that's a great country to go to. You know what I mean? So my dad's tastes were so incredibly eclectic. Loved Fatswaller.

Love Benny Goodman. Oh, God. Loved Flip Wilson. Loved Flip Wilson. So you were almost faded to this life. I think so. I actually did say to my parents, I wanted to be an architect. They said, oh, why would you want to do that fool?

And my mom says, don't do that, be an actor. They were like, you know, why wouldn't you want to be an actor? That's what my dad's whole thing is. Were there moments of doubt along the way where you said, yeah, like, I don't know if I can make a living doing this. Dude, I thought I was being fired every week at Serrient life. It's, it's, it's, you have to retard, you know, like a sword swallower, you have to retard the gag reflex of, and you can only just make stuff for yourself.

You have to just make stuff that you go. And that's what I loved about working with Tim Kirkby is that we were like, let's just make it for us. We've got to know somebody else is going to like it too. You know what I mean? You've got a little track record, too, of making things that other people like. Well, who knew, dude?

I mean, it's remarkable. Did you ever settle in at SNL to a comfort zone when some of those characters took off, whether it was Wayne's World or Linda Richmond or Peter? You never were totally comfortable. No. Really? No, I enjoyed doing them. Lauren is being nothing but fantastic to me.

It sounds like it's anti-Loran, not at all. Lauren is a tough coach, do you know what I mean? And I've always benefited from tough coaches. I think he was sort of hard on us after Wayne's World because this movie had done so well, and he didn't want us to look like we were favorites for him. but Dana and I did share a couple of like well

could you take it down just a notch you know what I mean just critical of the writing and the performance and everything just brusque but you know what I couldn't have done Austin Powers without having worked with Lauren on Wayne's World I studied everything that Lauren said I applied all of the

smarts that he had I drilled him for advice constantly he was very generous of it He was always protective. I see now that he actually was way protective of me. I don't even know why, maybe because I'm a Canadian, I don't know. But I do think, Lauren, there's not a day I don't quote him.

You know what I mean? He gave a glossary of terms for stuff in comedy that previously did not have a glossary of terms, you know? That's one of his greatest gifts. And I think his genius can be seen from space. I think his influence is more tectonic and he's influenced comedy and us that ever influenced make comedy.

No question about it. So when you walk down the street in New York, what's the movie people are most likely to yell at you about it? It's all different. Is it? Yeah, so like some dudes that work in the park, sometimes it's, hey, it's Lothar the Hill people, which is a sketch I did on Silent Life.

Is that right? Yes. I've had that one. Luther, oh, my God, Luther. That's a deep cut. Yes. I was like, thank you. Dr. Evil is a constant.

And Shrek, Shrek is a constant. I've had different experiences. The guy from the food fighters, Dave Grohl, came up to me at the the Grammys once. I was like, oh my God, it's Dave Grohl.

And he went, the details of my life are quite inconsequential. You know, Summers and he did the whole speech, didn't say anything else. And then he went like this and walked around. And I was like, you are very kind, sir. I've done something. Yes. Do you still have moments, Mike, just listening. You talk about your family and the way you grew up in public housing and all those things,

where you sit and go, I can't believe what's happened in my life. Every day. Every day. Yeah. Yeah. Every day. It's fantastic. It's beyond anything.

And I think it's, seeing it still in the culture is unbelievably satisfying. And, you know, just, it's mind-blowing, you know. I am very attached to Toronto, and I think it's, I think because it keeps me sane. You know. You've done a good job of that, it seems to me. I'm trying. I'm trying. Your head about you.

I'm trying. All right. So before I let you go, what are you dreaming of that you might do down the road that you haven't done yet? You've done your track record is in history. You've done all you've done. What else is still out there? Is there something dramatic? Is there something that you think about would be cool?

Because you've still got a bunch of roads. ahead of you. Yeah. One thing I would love is I would love to play my part in creating a level playing field for artists starting out now so that artists starting out aren't just the sons or daughters of wealthy people. As I look out over New York City and I go, who could afford to live here? Do you mean?

And this is where so much work is. How do you get here? And I would love to sort of, you know, I'm very grateful to the Canadian government. You know what I mean? Government worked for me. Do you know what I mean? And in lieu of that, I think those of us that have been very, very lucky, need to lessen the load. Let people be crappy for a few years.

That's the other thing, too, you know what I mean? Somebody can have talent, but they haven't. gotten into that gear yet. I see it all the time with my friends where, you know, Bob Odenkirk's a great example. He was on the show on Second City, and I think he was nervous and scared, and now look at him. He's brilliant. And, you know, that's so satisfying to see. But I just don't want it to be that the arts is something that, it's like horse riding or something, you know what I mean? I'd like it to be that, you know,

because talent is a blind pixie. It doesn't know whether you're gay or straight, black or white, able, less abled, male or female. You know what I mean? All of the genders. It doesn't know what you are. It does tap you on the shoulder. But if you are so poor that you can't get to the audition,

if you don't have good vegetables in your neighborhood, but if you have to, because you don't have health insurance, take care of your mom and don't have the time, don't have electricity to study at your table, then the pixie can tap you on the shoulder 7,000 times, and you won't be able to weaponize what it is that you've been given. And that's the level playing field that I would love to be part of. That's really cool, and admirable.

So I was going for like a fat bastard movie, but this is bad. Stick around for more of my conference. with Mike Myers right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Mike Myers. There's been some talk in the trades, Mike. Sure. About the potential for another Austin Powers movie. Yes.

Can you tell us anything about that? I would love to do one. And I hope it comes together. Feels like you could make it come together. I would, we'll see. I can neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of such a project should it exist or not exist. exist. That sounds pretty good to me. Yes. I think it's coming. Or it's not coming. There you go. Thanks, Mike. All right.

Appreciate it. Thanks. My big thanks again to Mike for a great conversation. What a thrill to get to spend that much time with him. Walk through his career and hear about the new show, which you can catch. It's called the Pentaverit streaming now on Netflix. And my big thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of my conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click Follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.