Myers Accepts Film Institute Star Award
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) ó When comedian Mike Myers was growing up, anyone who wanted to be invited to his home more than once had to be funny.
“My dad was very like, if somebody came in the house that wasn’t funny, it was like, ‘Can’t come anymore,'” said Myers, accepting the 2003 American Film Institute Star Award.
Myers, who grew up in Toronto, told the audience at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival that his characters √≥ on the big screen and on “Saturday Night Live” √≥ were all based on his family members.
“Wayne is me,” Myers said Friday of the film “Wayne’s World,” while the 1960s swinger Austin Powers resembles his father, a native of Liverpool, England, who never let his son forget his roots.
“It would be 11 o’clock at night and the local TV station would have something with Peter Sellers or Alec Guinness and he’d say ‘You’re going to bloody watch this and you’re going to bloody enjoy it. It’s your bloody heritage.'”
When his father died in 1993, Myers took a two-year break from acting because “nothing seemed funny to me.” It was then that he crafted what would be the basis for his “Austin Powers” character.
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