(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Thu 23 October 2025 17:15, UK
Every actor who becomes a star by way of a highly specific brand of comedy will one day reach a point in their career when audiences grow tired of their schtick, and for Mike Myers, it was The Love Guru.
Think of anyone else who possesses similar traits, and the outcome is usually the same: Jim Carrey is semi-retired, Eddie Murphy ended his self-imposed exile to exclusively make mediocre streaming films, Will Ferrell hasn’t headlined a good movie in years, and Adam Sandler’s fare dwells only on Netflix.
The only conceivable way that Myers can regain even a shred of his previous popularity is with another Austin Powers sequel, but it’s been over 20 years since Goldmember. He seems happy doing nothing anyway, with his disastrously bad Netflix series, The Pentaverate, his only starring role since 2008.
The Love Guru single-handedly tanked him, and he decided to wash his hands of Hollywood after that. Which might have been for the best, considering there’s a long list of people who can’t stand him. Comedians are a unique bunch, but Myers was painted as more of a diva than an eccentric.
Universal Studios released a statement calling him “selfish” and “egomaniacal” when he was sued for breach of contract for scrapping a feature-length outing for his Saturday Night Live character, Dieter. To avoid the courtroom, he agreed to make The Cat in the Hat instead, where he kept pissing people off.
His co-star in the movie that was so bad it made Dr Seuss’ widow ban any more live-action adaptations of his work, Amy Hill, told The AV Club that working with Myers was “a horrible, nightmarish experience,” describing him as “really rude” and failing to decide whether he was a diva or someone in need of therapy.
Wayne’s World launched his big-screen career, and how did the director, Penelope Spheeris, find him to be around? “I hated that bastard for years,” she declared. “Maybe he could open, like, a children’s hospital to clean up his rep. He’s got to do something pretty quick.” Her tongue was slightly in cheek, but they repeatedly clashed during shooting, and he made sure she wasn’t invited back to helm the sequel.
What about Dana Carvey, the Garth to his Wayne? He accused Myers of stealing the Dr Evil character from him, and their friendship was nonexistent for decades until they reunited for a string of ads. He became so unpopular that one studio executive, under the cover of anonymity, confessed that they “honestly root against him” to succeed.
Even in Shrek, a franchise that’s as inoffensive as they come, Myers cost DreamWorks millions of dollars when he wanted to re-record his dialogue in a Scottish brogue. It was the right decision, but not everyone in the company was thrilled that he’d made a last-minute request at such great expense, although the billions of dollars in revenue the green ogre has generated softened the blow.
As the saying goes, ‘If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you’re the asshole’. Based on how many people have come out of the woodwork to air their grievances with Myers, it sounds like he’s a little bit of an asshole.
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