How Mike Myers Makes His Own Reality

Directing him in Austin Powers taught me what it means to be really, truly funny.

-  Jay Roach

I FIRST became aware of Mike Myers through Saturday Night Live. I had been a huge fan of the show since the late '70s, and suddenly this new kid emerged on "Wayne's World" as Wayne Campbell, an Everyman from Aurora, Illinois, based on friends from Mike's past-just a party-on kid who loves music and stages a show in his basement. And on "Sprockets," in which he played Dieter, a Pop Art-loving, dancecrazed German talk-show host. One of my personal favorites was a hypoglycemic 6-year-old named Phillip. He's this hilariously energetic kid who's kept in a harness and says "I love you, you know." On the surface, all of those characters were broadly comedic, but underneath they involved layers of intelligent design.

I met Mike in the early '90s when he walked up to my wife, Susanna Hoffs, and me after a premiere to say he owned a signed Susanna Hoffs Rickenbacker guitar.

After that, we started hanging out. On one occasion, he mentioned he was working on a project about an English spy frozen in the '60s and thawed out in the '90s. I offered to read the script, as a friend, and I quickly fell in love with Austin Powers. He was just as hilarious and specific as many of Mike's SNL characters but even more so. He came with his own complete world. I wrote a lot of supportive notes along with some suggestions. He liked them-and then he asked me to direct it.