n 1997, Saturday Night Live veteran Michael Myers made a splash with his good-natured and raunchy spoof on the spy genre, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. The film was a surprise box-office hit and made such an impression on audiences that a second film, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, soon followed. As a treat for the fans who made the first two Austin Powers films successful, the creative team has reunited once again for a third installment that delves more deeply into the backgrounds of Austin and his nemesis, Dr. Evil.
The now-familiar cast of characters are back as well, including Dr. Evil's angsty son, Scott, played by Seth Green, and his tiny, evil clone, Mini-Me, played by Verne Troyer. As the two fight for the attention of Dr. Evil, allegiances change and new alliances are formed. Newcomer Beyonce Knowles, one-third of the hit pop-music group Destiny's Child, has also been added into the mix as a new love interest for Austin. Her character, Foxxy Cleopatra, is an amalgam of black female action heroes from the 1970s, such as Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones.
Director Jay Roach, along with Knowles, Troyer and Green, sat down with Science Fiction Weekly to discuss the process of making the third, and possibly final, episode in the Austin Powers saga, Austin Powers in Goldmember.
You had some difficulties with MGM about using the title Goldmember. How did you work it out?
Roach: As we do with many of the things we do ... we delude ourselves into believing the impossible is possible, mostly through Mike [Myers]. He never assumes we can't do anything. He's so optimistic.
We all had that optimism about the title. We really felt like it was a procedural thing and that MGM would get it. It was never about intellectual property or anything and they would give it back to us. I talked to [MGM executive] Chris McGurk once and said, "Isn't this about what it shouldn't be about?" Eventually, they said OK and gave it back to us.
Is it true that you were considering Never Say Member Again?
Roach: Yeah. There were a bunch of them—Thunderballs, Live and Let Shag. It would also be limited on one level only to the people who knew about the controversy about the title. In 10 years, would you really have that in your brain?
What made you want to do another Austin Powers film?
Roach: Goldmember is a brand new character and he's so weird. I wanted people to say it's not the same as the other two. It's even weirder stuff this time. We're not just going to go back and do the same thing again. I was really reluctant to do a sequel. I don't like sequels sometimes. They're very often about just a franchise thing. I thought, can we really do anything different? And Mike [Myers] said, "I've got this character. The dad's going to be there and we're going to throw Dr. Evil in jail." He had like 10 things that were reinventions of the whole thing. I said, "Sounds good. I'm in." That's how it happened.
How do you make it new and different, yet still meet the expectations of the fans?
Roach: Mike said, "We've got to do some of the greatest hits." And obviously we all agreed on that. The audience is expecting Austin and Dr. Evil to come back and some of the catch phrases. Every step we asked ourselves, "Is this what they expect? Is it as good as they expect?" And then we said, "We gotta do better." It has to exceed their expectations at every step. That's a high standard, but it drove us and we worried about it and kept shooting stuff until weeks ago.
What made you move into the '70s as opposed to the '60s in the last two films?
Roach: I grew up in the '70s and went to high school in the '70s. Some of it was good but a lot of it was really bad—clothes and music. There was a certain kind of thing we liked because I wasn't cool. And Mike [Myers] grew up in a suburb in Toronto and we probably thought, like a lot of kids, we're not part of the cool thing. These are what the cool people do. We wanted to connect with stuff we missed out on. I missed out on the cool clubs. I never went to a real roller-derby disco. I never learned The Hustle or anything like that. We make films about what we missed out on. That's why I like the '60s so much.
I heard there was a huge vomiting scene that was cut from the film. What led to that decision?
Roach: We sometimes shoot something to make ourselves laugh, then realize afterwards we went too far on that. I might be one of the people who got queasiest first. I went all the way with that joke. It's the Fantasia of vomit scenes. It tops Mr. Creosote in The Meaning of Life and the guy in Stand by Me. There are people vomiting off of upper decks. It's perfect symmetry. It's done to opera music. They start throwing up because [Nobo Matsuhisa's character] Mr. Robato is getting eaten by sharks. It was horrible beauty. We try to be edgy because we want people to loosen up. A little off-color is good, but too much is bad. You've got to sense it when you're doing it. We only do this for the audience.
Can you talk about the surprising and funny cameos in this film, which we won't give away?
Roach: Thank you for respecting the audience. I want them to have the thrill I hope you had. You know, you didn't see it coming. I heard they were talking about it, but you don't know how it's going to happen and the preview audience just lost their minds. They didn't know how to take it. Then it got better and it was explosive. It was pretty amazing.
How did you go about casting Beyonce as Austin's love interest in this film?
Roach: I saw a lot of people. Beyonce was one of the last people I saw because I wanted an actress who we would teach to sing. I wasn't sure of the musician becoming an actress. I read mostly these great actresses and [co-producer] John Lyons, to his credit, said "I think she's really charismatic." He'd seen Carmen, the hip-hop MTV thing. So I saw her and she was really shy at first. She was with her mom in the first meeting. Her mom knew all the references to the Pam Grier films. Beyonce's only 20 years old. I still can't believe that. Tina [Beyonce's mom] knew all the films, so she came back and I said, "I still can't give you the part. I know you're a big famous star but you have to audition."
So she came back about two weeks later after some tour dates, and she'd seen every film and was dressed to the character. She was shy during the first take but by the third take she was amazing. She could keep up with Mike and make him laugh. He made her laugh, which I think is romantic with Austin, to get the woman to laugh. She was doing "Shazam!" and "You're under arrest, sugar." All these great things and was really funny. I thought, she could do anything and is going to be a huge star and we're lucky to be able to be part of it from the beginning of it. So we cast her that day.
What about the "blaxploitation" elements of Beyonce's character, Foxxy Cleopatra?
Roach: Mike's sense of pop culture is so accepted by the audience and we love these Pam Grier films. When you embrace something while also sending it up, you can tell by the way you do a character that you love the character, then I don't think it's the same thing as though you dug into something and make fun of it. Beyonce performed it so well.
Beyonce, which did you watch first, Foxy Brown or Cleopatra Jones?
Knowles: Foxy Brown. I think my character was most like Foxy Brown. I know she had a lot of the same little, "I'm a whole lotta woman" [phrases]. They got a lot of those cute lines from Foxy Brown.
Had you seen the movie before?
Knowles: Yes, I had. My mother made me watch it. It was when I was younger, before I could appreciate it. She's always loved Pam Grier and she said, "You've got to watch this movie!" But, you know, when your mom says to do something, I was like 14, so I was like "Nuh-uh." But it was interesting being older and looking at it in a different perspective. It was more like research.
Was it difficult getting used to the afro wig?
Knowles: My hair was all under the wig. That's why it took an hour and a half every day to put the wig on, because we had to braid my hair up, pin it. ... Some days I just left that whole cap on the whole week. I'm like, "I'm just leaving this on, I don't want to go through this every day."
What was it like having to perform scenes with Mike Myers in full Austin Powers wardrobe?
Knowles: The first day I saw him, I was completely starstruck, because I had been doing the rehearsals with Mike Myers and then Austin Powers walks in. He really just became him. He'd had the accent and everything before but I was like, "This is real. I'm really working on Austin Powers." That was the day I realized that I was doing Austin Powers.
Is it true that Mike Myers stays in character between takes?
Knowles: Yes, he does. My mom walked in and he hadn't seen her. He only met her
once. And he was dressed as Goldmember. And he did not change his accent. And my mom was like, "Wow, that is incredible." It was, completely. He asked for water in the accent. He talks to everyone in the accent.
Is this role like being a Bond girl?
Knowles: I guess it was in a way. I got to be the secret agent and I got to have the
gun. It was cool because I was almost protecting Austin more than he was protecting me, because
Austin's scared of guns, because really, Mike is scared of guns. So it was great. I got to pull the
gun out of my hair. It was fun because I could kind of make fun of it, you know?
Did he do a lot of improv? How did you keep up with that?
Knowles: Completely, yes, god. That's what I was scared of, because I'd seen Saturday Night Live and I'd heard that he was spontaneous. He was. And some days, I don't know how I got through it. I just tried to stay in character and think like Foxxy. That's the only thing I could do. Try not to laugh.
Verne Troyer, having already played Mini-Me in the second film, was it easy to get back
into it for the third?
Troyer: It was still a challenge, but it made it easier, yes. Because it was such a big
thing having all the other cast members back. It was like a big family reunion and we all feel
comfortable and we all just enjoy it.
Your character goes through certain changes in this film. How did you approach that?
Troyer: I enjoyed it, definitely, being able to play two different characters—kind of like the yin and the yang [points to his yin-yang tattoo]. I enjoyed it, definitely. I'd been such a big fan of the first one, even before I got involved in the second and now the third. I felt pretty comfortable playing both parts.
Was there anything you had to do that made you uncomfortable?
Troyer: The one scene that I had with Beyonce and I don't wanna give it away, I felt
probably more uncomfortable than Beyonce. But I can't answer for her. The way I felt was like, "Jay,
do I have to do this?" But I did.
Is it easier to have no lines to memorize?
Troyer: I wouldn't say easier, but it definitely makes it a challenge and I really enjoy
that. It's kind of like going back to the silent-film era and being able to show your emotions and
the audience can understand exactly what my character goes through.
Do you do your own stunts?
Troyer: In the fight scene, definitely. ... If I did everything, I probably wouldn't be here
talking to you. There aren't too many people who can actually double me, so I started out doing
stunts and things like that. I feel really comfortable doing it.
What was your favorite scene to shoot?
Troyer: The fight scene. I like the physical aspect of it. I actually was able to see the
final cut of that, because I had to go in and do ADR for like grunts and groans and, "Oy vey." I
actually liked that aspect of it.
Did Austin Powers change your life?
Troyer: You have no idea. Dramatically. And I'm still trying to get used to everything that's happening. Just going into public, I try to wear a hat and sunglasses, but that doesn't seem to help [laughs].
Seth Green, how have you dealt with the success of the first two Austin Powers films?
Green: I think just as best as I can. I mean, the success of these movies is shocking
and a little disorienting. So I just try as hard as I can to still be me, you know, outside of the
movies. Because it doesn't really affect me on a day-to-day basis. So I don't think about it too much.
Your character also has a certain amount of change and growth in Goldmember. How did you respond to that as an actor?
Green: If you think about it, I feel like there was a tremendous amount of growth between the first one and the second one. If you really look at where the character started in the first one and where he ends up in the second one, you can see that there's a real path charted. It's just that this is so much more of a drastic change that everybody's picking up on it. But if you watch all three of these films together, you'll see that every one of the characters is allowed to age, is allowed to evolve and mature in their own right and get to a new place, you know? It's evolution.
What do you see as the path from the first and the second Austin Powers films?
Green: It's just a natural growth between the 18-year-old kid who's never met his father to the kid who's really trying to work through all of those issues and establish a place in this organization. And especially in the third one, where you first see us, I'm just blasé about the whole experience. "This is you. This is me. This is what we do. This is the table. And this is your evil task for the day. La dee dah." You know? It's all that, "Why don't you love me?" They've been really amazing about giving each one of these characters emotional resonance. That's why I love
these movies so much.
You have some interesting hairstyles in this one.
Green: Yeah. All of them were wigs. My head was shaved through the whole movie. So
even the long hair in the movie is a wig.
What was your favorite scene?
Green: You know, I just saw it the one time and most of that is the shock of what's not in
the movie. ... I'm telling you there's an hour of the movie that's not in the movie. You know what,
symmetrically, it doesn't fit. It just doesn't. It's great. All that stuff would be great stand-alone scenes. Jay actually made the best comment there is, that the art of making these movies is not what you put in but what you take out. That makes the film function successfully. Because there's just so
much.
What did you really miss that they cut out?
Green: I had a really funny scene that will be on the DVD, and I was disappointed because we didn't even get to film the entire version of it, which was so much more brilliant. There's a scene where Dr. Evil gets captured and we're packing up the lair. And we've got, like, moving boxes and, like, henchmen uniforms and wardrobe boxes and we're like, "Packing stinks." We filmed that scene because it's where they tell me that while Dr. Evil's in jail, I'm responsible for the decisions about the organization. I'm like, "Ahh." And that kind of motivates the whole hair thing and the evolution of that thought process.
But in the beginning of the scene that never got filmed, there's a realtor showing another evil mastermind the lair. And it's just so funny. It's like a Dr. Claw. They were going to get Chris Walken to play the part. You know, the realtor was like, "Now notice all the recessed lighting." You know, "Are those lasers included?" "The lasers are going but the sconces are staying. And there's a
detention cell in the basement. I mean, this is really great." And he's like, "I like it. I like it." And they turn privately and they're like, "The sellers are very motivated." And I thought that was really just a brilliant invention. Just goes to show you the kinds of things that Mike [Myers] and Mike [McCullers] think of that are discarded. You can imagine.
Are you anxious for a fourth movie?
Green: I'm not. I'm absolutely not. ... I didn't assume that there was ever going to be a
second one. I didn't imagine that there would be a third one. So the fact that we've gotten to make
these movies is such a gift, you know. And I don't have any expectations for the future. I saw this and
I continue to see this as the end of the trilogy.
Jay Roach, do you think this is the last Austin Powers film?
Roach: It's the last of the trilogy. I think it's the best. I thought it would be the last
one. But halfway through, Mike starts coming up with other ideas. We're waiting to see if this one
does OK and if he has as good ideas as he did on this one, we'll always come back. I'll try to do other
thing, too, but I love doing this.
Have these films blurred the lines of what is considered a spoof?
Roach: I've always been reluctant to use the word spoof or parody, because I don't go at it like that. Austin's mythology and the manifestations of him and the other characters are celebratory and enjoyable because we really love that world. Dr. Evil is a B-movie bad guy. I love that retro-futuristic thing. I try to make all his sets look like it's a guy who's fixated in a place that he has romantic, almost fetishistic, involvement with. Same with Goldmember. Everything is set up to
be as sophisticated and stylistic a version as I know how to do of a physical manifestation of
who the characters really are.
That distinguishes it from the typical parody where everything is
deliberate. You present the most laughable aspects of something as opposed to the most nostalgic, enjoyable aspects, and have fun with the characters. I want to make films where you want to be in that world, not [that] are poking fun and laughing at it. There's a tongue-in-cheek thing with all of the Bond films. In the first one, people asked if we could do camp on camp. I don't know if I understand the word camp, but I know I love these films and want to take you into those worlds. I try to make you feel like you want to be part of it. That has spread like a benign virus based on the contagiousness of Mike's energy. I'm so proud of that and feel lucky to be part of it.
Also in this issue: Jonathan Frakes.
