Posted in: NBC, Peacock, TV | Tagged: saturday night live, snl

SNL Alum Mike Myers Addresses Those Dr. Evil/Lorne Michaels Rumors

SNL alum and Austin Powers star Mike Myers addresses whether or not Dr. Evil was based on EP Lorne Michaels, the late-night show's creator.

Regarding the creative atmosphere of Saturday Night Live, nothing seems to be off limits as far as impressions, including creator Lorne Michaels. Among those lampooning him include alums like Dana Carvey, who's currently playing President Joe Biden, presumably until the end of his term in January 2025, and writer Robert Smigel, who voiced him during his TV Funhouse animated segments. Former SNL head writer and cast member Tina Fey admitted basing Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy, the network executive who operates as her character Liz Lemon's boss on 30 Rock, is based on Michaels. The Michaels-created Kids in the Hall's cast member Mark McKinney, who would also have a stint on SNL, based his character of Don Roritor on him. It was rumored that SNL alum Mike Myers based his Austin Powers villain Dr. Evil on Michaels, but there's only a kernel of truth to that as the actor spoke with Vulture to discuss his career and the whole story of his James Bond villain-inspired character he played across all three Austin Powers films.

Mike Myers Admits There Was "Overlay" When It Came to His Dr. Evil Inspiration and SNL Creator Lorne Michaels

Myers remains adamant that his Dr. Evil, which he originated since 1997's debut of the Austin Powers spy franchise in International Man of Mystery, from Donald Pleasance's incarnation of Ernst Starvro Blofeld in You Only Live Twice (1967). Arguably the most popular Bond villain of the franchise, the Ian Flemming-created character, was also played on screen by Anthony Dawson, Telly Savalas, Charles Gray, John Hollis, Max von Sydow, and Christoph Waltz. "The Lorne of it is just a little tiny overlay," Myers told Vulture. "I'm Canadian. He's Canadian. He had an educated Canadian accent, and I have a Scarborough accent. One time, he goes, 'Mike, do you want to come up to the Hamptons?' I was like, 'Am I fired?' I went, and it was like, 'That's Mick's room, or do you want Keith's room?' And I was like, 'Either's fine. Couch works! The car works!'"

Setting the scene, Myers would write Dr. Evil's origins into his backstory. "So anyway, we're there, and he has this big dinner with everybody," he continued. "I'd never been to the Hamptons, and here it's all people who are captains of industry but also people who own elemental things, like, 'That's Bill Smith; he owns bay salt.' And my joke was, 'There's the man who invented the question mark. And over there, he owns Lake Ontario. Next to him is the man who invented the pregnant pause, or so I … think.'"
Myers played both the title character – hero and villain – across all three films while also playing additional villains like Fat Bastard and Goldmember in The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Goldmember (2002). For more, including how he parodied Bond villains' tendency to overshare, reflecting on his time on SNL, his other major franchise character success with his two Wayne's World films, and his career, you can check out the entire interview.

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