Paul Fischer discusses Karma with the stars of 'The Love Guru', Mike Myers , Justin Timberlake and Verne Troyer.

MIKE MYERS: TAKING FARCE TO PHILOSOPHICAL HEIGHTS.
Interview By Paul Fischer

Mike Myers has created some of the screen’s most iconic characters, and he hopes to add his guru Pitka as the latest character to take the world by storm. Off screen, this Toronto native is reserved, profound and someone whose characters are rooted in a deep need to pay tribute to his late father, who inspired him, as he explains to Paul Fischer.

Paul Fischer: How long did it take you to create this character? And what was it about Indian culture that appealed to you?

Mike Myers: Well, my father passed away in 1991 and two things emerged for me creatively. One was Austin Powers. And Austin Powers was a tribute to my father for all the British comedy he introduced to me during his lifetime and in my lifetime. The other thing that emerged was the Guru Pitka.  In 1994 I did a stage show and did five characters. I did Austin Powers for the first time and I did the Guru Pitka for the first time.  The Guru Pitka was my kind of my dealing with his death and the one guy I wanted to see my success the universe had taken away from me and it rocked my world. And I went on a mini, not terribly deep spiritual quest in which I began to read veraciously and one of the things I read was Deepak Chopra.  I saw him on ‘Oprah’ and I went ‘Wow, what an interesting philosopher.  What an interesting writer.’ So, I read his book. I can’t remember which one, because he’s written 50 of them. And when asked about it, in one magazine, I cannot remember.  Rolling Stone I was asked about Gary Zukof.  And when Deepak Chopra saw in this magazine, a friend of a friend of a friend said ‘How come you are reading my book? And would you like to meet?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ And we met and I saw him give a lecture for two hours and he was hilarious and he had a great sense of humor.  And I was like, ‘Thank god he’s funny.’ Because if I was there for two hours and it wasn’t funny, I don’t know what I was going to do.  And he has a great sense of humor. And the notion of being enlightened is to be lightened up. Which is what my father always said. One of things he said was, ‘Nothing is so painful it can’t be laughed at.’  And he said, ‘Now we have done some work, let’s have some fun.’  My dad was from Liverpool.  And I think those are two really simple and profound ideas.

Paul Fischer: And those stayed with you your entire life?

Mike Myers:My whole life, yeah. These are sources of comfort and happiness. And this is how this was born.  I thought about it since 1991 and since he died in 1994.But moreover, as I was reading, he’s sort of is like what Carl Sagan is to physics, he is to matters philosophical.  I’m not sure where the demarcation of spiritual, philosophical, creative and all that stuff is clearly marked in the same diagram of life. I think there are a lot of secondary colors in there, but, um, I know that people would say, ‘What are you reading?’ And as I would tell them the different philosophical things, this voice emerged and I started talking like this. And I would say, ‘The only way out is in. Intimacy is into me I c.Love without knowledge,  knowledge without love and then love with knowledge.  The thing he would talk about and the things he would point me in a direction to read about and this voice emerged. Friends of mine would call me up and say, ‘Do the voice.  I’m feeling depressed.’  So, I’d be like, ‘The universe loves you.’ And this is how it emerged, organically out of that. Things take a long time to gestate to me.  I’m not a fast writer.

Paul Fischer: How long did it take you to do your first draft? Do you know?

Mike Myers: I had the concept probably in 96.  And then one things lead to another. Like Jeffrey Katzenberg comes and says to me, ‘Would you like to do animated movie called ‘Shrek’?’ And I said, ‘What a terrible name.’  (Laughs.) And three ‘Shrek’s later.  Three done and one coming, I would have never predicted any of it. When I was a kid in Toronto I had no idea that I’d get employed and remain employed.  So, there is less -- it’s more like driving at night with beams that are low on the ground.  You really can’t see too far ahead.

Paul Fischer: Was Mariska Hargitay your idea?

Mike Myers: A friend of mine, Eric Gilliland, I had done this as a stage show in LA and I did it more recently in New York City. And at that time ,a friend of mine who is a writer, Eric Gilligan, he wrote on ‘Roseanne.’  I asked, ‘Would you be main guy, my main disciple and talk to the audience.’  And, of course, he goes, ‘I’d love to.’ And so, I said, ‘I have this whole fictional teaching system, but I don’t have a salutation. A fictional salutation.’  And he went, ‘Mariska Hargitay.’ And I went, ‘Wow.’ And he said, ‘Mariska Hargitay is a good friend of mine.’  And she’s since become a lovely friend of mine now. And she came to the show, four shows later and every time he would say ‘Mariska Hargitay,’ we’d hear, “Ha, ha.’ And I’d go, ‘My god, that’s Mariska Hargitay.’ Recently, she sent me an unauthorized T-shirt from the internet that says, ‘Mariska Hargitay, Mariska Hargitay.’  That’s so perfect.  She’s awesome and when you get to know her, she is, in fact, a blessing.  And Eric Gilligan, is the writer’s name. He actually got honored last night with all the ‘Roseanne’ people at the TV Land Awards.

Paul Fischer: How did you come up with the self-help philosophies? And has Deepak seen the movie?

Mike Myers:I think he has seen the movie. He’s in the movie. He gets it. This is the remarkable thing. Everyone who showed up gets it. It’s silly and I feel that silly is the best delivery system for interesting ideas. When I was 19 in Toronto, the 784 Theater Company came to Toronto.  And that’s 7 percent of the population owning 84 percent of the wealth.  They are very, very left wing theater company. And I was intrigued, because I thought, ‘How entertaining can this be?’ And John McGrath,  he was the founder of the 784 and he wrote a book called ‘The Good Night Out.’ And in it, he thought even the most message-laden theater, which in this case would be convincing me, a 19-year-old kid from the suburbs of the historical inevitability of dialectical materialism.That’s pretty heavy for a kid who is a heavy metal kid who is also a punk rocker. I was sitting there going, ‘What is this?’ But by the end of it, I fell in love with the main girl. I laughed unit I cried. I cried until I laughed. They were such great entertainers that by the end of it, I was starting to go, ‘Wow. What an interesting concept of dialectical materialism. What an interesting notion of financial inequity or whatever you want to...’  You know what I’m saying? Because, agitating propaganda requires that you’re the best entertainer possible.  Because if you can’t agitate, educate and organize if you’re not entertaining. And it blew my mind, because he said the main entertainment, the ticket price, the soda price, the air-conditioning, he had a whole full-bore philosophy of entertainment. And it blew my mind.  And I thought of two movies that dealt with mutually assured destruction.  One was ‘Fail Safe,’ which is a melodrama and the other one is ‘Strangelove’ which is a farce. And ‘Strangelove’ is very silly, but if you were to think of a movie that more frightens you about the concept of mutually assured destruction I think you would go with ‘Strangelove’, which is a very silly face to tell.  Now, nothing I have done has touched the hem of the garment of Strangelove and I don’t think anything ever will. I think that’s one in every five generations masterpiece. But a person can aspire and in terms of aspiring to something, Peter Sellers, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, ‘Strangelove’ would be the ultimate movie for me. It’s the ultimate piece of entertainment that has one of the most deepest messages ever.

Paul Fischer: All of your movies have all these great musical numbers. When are you going to make a real musical?

Mike Myers: It’s funny, you know KCET, the local PBS station, just had a pledge drive and they had a documentary on singing and dancing and they break it up to do the pledge thing and I went ‘I love these movies! I love ‘On the Town.’ I wanna make ‘On the Town.’ I would love to.  That’s what Jay Roach keeps saying to me, ‘Why don’t you make a musical?’  And I go, ‘I would love to.’  I love it. I love ‘On the Town.’ I love ‘An American in Paris.’ And, again, I’m a punk rocker. I’m sitting there going, ‘Oh, wow. The colors. The world.’

Paul Fischer: Any chance of an ‘Austin Powers 4’?

Mike Myers:: I would have to write it.  It’s one of 20 ideas.  10-20 ideas roughly, circling in there. 

Paul Fischer: What do you want to do next? Are there any new characters circling in there you’d like to tackle next?

Mike Myers: I don’t know. I just did the MTV Movie Awards. That was a pure joy form me. I did also two characters, Bucky and Tristan. I enjoyed them a lot too. So, I never know. I don’t know quite how it works out..

Paul Fischer: What are you going to do next?

Mike Myers: I don’t know. I promise you I don’t know.

Paul Fischer: How is ‘Shrek 4’ going?

Mike Myers: That one I don’t’ know either, because I never see the script. You never see the script ever. You see a little bit ahead ever time you go to record. I never get to record with the other people. You have to so rely on your training and imagination of a ‘What if?’  And because Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas are incredibly…(Laughs.) I love to say his name. I could say it all day.  They are so great that down the line when you hear their recordings you respond off of it and you feel you’re in their world. You’re actually like a goalie in hockey for the most part.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE: TENNESSEE MAN
Interview By Paul Fischer

Justin Timberlake may be one of music’s bigger stars, but as we chat in a Beverly Hills hotel room where he is busy promoting his comic turn in Mike Myers’ farcical Love Guru, it is clear that there resides a certain quiet normalcy about the singer/actor. He says that his determination to remain grounded and putting his fame into perspective, “goes back to family and how you’re raised. I think that for a lot of people, at some point or another have a moment where things become pressure, because you do feel like people are watching you, you do feel like you’re going to affect people and you feel the weight of that, so you start to feel pressure,” the actor explains.

“Then you deal with it in a number of ways, but I think a lot of it has to do with how ever you were prepared before that moment and for me, that were my mom and stepdad, I was born and raised in a home where we were always taught that everybody puts their pants on the same way every morning. I know when I was a kid it was Michael Jordan who had on impact on me in that way. I remember when I was really young and my parents telling me that he’s a great basketball played but that doesn’t make him superhuman, but that makes him a great basketball player. I think that’s just what I was taught. How it’s affected me in my adult life with what dealing with what might become too much pressure to meet people’s needs or fascination, is I just let it go. I don’t invest in it and I stay away from it as much as I can.”

Justin Randall Timberlake was born on January 31, 1981, in Memphis, Tennessee. At the age of 11, he appeared on the show "Star Search" (1983), and even though he didn't win, it didn't dampen his ambitions. He also appeared on "MMC" (1989), where his costars included Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell, Christina Aguilera and future band-mate J.C. Chasez. At age 14, Justin became a member of the boy band *NSYNC that released their self-titled debut album in 1998. They became a big hit with fans and made a place for themselves in the music world with a succession of big-selling albums.

In the beginning of 2002, Justin spent time working on and writing songs for his debut solo album. During this time, he broke up with his longtime girlfriend, Britney Spears. The release of the solo album, titled "Justified", came in November of 2002. Songs from his solo album include: "Like I Love You", "Cry Me A River" and "Rock Your Body".

For Timberlake, acting appears to be a natural extension of his music, yet he now recalls that as a teenager, he may well have not sung at all had fate not lent a hand. “Funny enough, I it’s interesting, my stepdad and I just had a conversation. He goes, ‘You know, it’s so funny that you’re actually still finding a way to get into film.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Remember when you were 14 and you were recording demos in Nashville?’ The television show had gotten canceled, I was going back to school and I was about to start high school. Our next think was to drive out to LA for pilot season, and that’s what I was going to do. I got a phone call from Chris Kirkpatrick, and said there’s a label in Germany that will sign us and we’ll have an manager. Didn't know he’d end up serving 25 in jail—but it’s not my business. It’s just funny how it all kind of works out.”

Yet he says he remains surprised at how his life ultimately turned out. “Every day I kind of look at it and say, How did this happen? but it’s interesting, one thing kind of leads to the other. Everybody says, that everything happens for a reason. I don't know about that, but I know that one thing leads to the other. I think I’ve just been lucky enough to have some opportunities thus far to do films that I think are either good dramatic roles or good stories to tell or, you know, Jacques Grande.”

Jacques Grande is the villainous buffoon he plays in Love Guru, complete with thick French accent and a wacky costume that defies description. He recalls getting dressed up as the character for the first time, looking at the mirror and saying to himself: “This is going to be funny. I know! All I have to do is show up now and this is going to be funny.” It’s an outrageous performance from Timberlake, but not one in keeping with much of thr actor’s previous film work.

But clearly Mike Myers saw something in Timberlake that fuelled his interest in casting the singer as his antagonist. “I would assume that my interaction with Mike promoting Shrek the Third was probably most likely my couple of stints on SNL, that Mike knew that I could, I guess, play the part.” Timberlake recalls Mike calling him up and describing the character before he even saw a script. “He called first and then he sent the script and our conversation went something like, ‘Hey, I want you to come play the villain in this new movie I’m working on. I’ve been, you know, worshipping the character.’ “

Timberlake, alwayus the hard working perfectionist, spent serious time developing the biggest French accent imaginable. “I figured the best way to do it was to get the accent down proper, before going to set. For the first couple of days that I was on-set I just kept the dialect coach with me, and said, ‘You have to help me find ways to milk this,’ because we’re in a Mike Myers film, I’m the only other caricature really in the film, because, between Mike and myself, everybody else plays it kind of straight.” And he would try to remain in character between takes, he says laughingly, “as much as possible. I would say something, then repeat it in zee accent, to try to sort of keep it fresh. But a lot of it was picking out certain words where you could mess with the rhythm of them and sort of make them funny.”

As funny as he is in Love Guru, Timberlake concedes that he doesn’t find comedy easy nor has he does so. “I know that there’s certain people in the world like Mike who just enjoy making people laugh. My earliest memories as a kid was I would always try to make my mom and my stepdad laugh at dinner, or make my friends laugh in class. I don't know, it’s something I just really enjoy doing, especially to be part of something like this, you don’t get this call every day.”

Next up for the prolific Timberlake is a new film called The Open Road with Jeff Bridges, Mary Steenburgen and Harry Dean Stanton. "Great cast, a great young writer/director Michael Meredith and it’s kind of a dramedy. It’s also sort of my first time to play the protagonist, so it was a really fun experience."

It seems as if Timberlake is going to continue the whole acting thing, putting his own singing on the basck burner but not completely give up on the music industry. “I do have a lot of creative juice going into writing and producing my artists on our indie label. It’s called Tennman records.” It’s short for Tennessee Man, as Timberlake returns to his roots.

VERNE TROYER: SIZE MATTERS
Interview by Paul Fischer

When it comes to his stature, Verne Troyer has been able to use it to comedic effect, from Mini Me in Austin Powers, through to his portrayal of a hockey coach in the latest Mike Myers comedy, The Love Guru. In fact, in that film, he literally has the last laugh. But audiences will soon see the diminutive actor in a very different light in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Heath Ledger’s final film. Troyer talked size, comedy and Imaginarium with Paul Fischer.

Paul Fischer: You must have a fantastic relationship with Mike Myers?

Verne Troyer: Yeah. I guess so. It’s fun to do the films that he asks me to do. If Mike Myers calls and asks you to do a film, you’re going to say yes.

Paul Fischer: There were a lot more of the little jokes in this particular movie. Were you a little bit worried about how much they were making fun of your size?

Verne Troyer: No. It’s a movie. It’s comedy. Entertainment. If you don’t like it, I’m sorry. It doesn’t bother me. If that were to happen in the outside world, depending on the tone or how they said it, it might offend me a little bit. But, like I say, it’s a movie and it’s there to entertain people.

Paul Fischer: You get to talk in this one. As Mini Me, you didn’t. Were you really happy when you were reading the script? Did you go “Ooooh, dialogue!”?

Verne Troyer: Yeah, I was. It wasn’t like I hadn’t done anything with speaking lines before. I have. I’ve done a bunch. Just being in this big movie, everybody is going to see that he can actually speak.

Paul Fischer: I’ll bet you have the best, funniest line in the entire movie at the end. Was that always a post credit thing? Did you know that was going to be there?

Verne Troyer: I didn’t know. I didn’t think they caught that on film. That was just…that came up and it is. That’s how I see it.

Paul Fischer: It’s hysterical.

Verne Troyer: It’s like when I walk behind somebody, what do I have? A crack.

Paul Fischer: Your character is really this badass coach. Did you model him after somebody in particular? What did you have in mind when you were creating him?

Verne Troyer: Well Mike thought the character should be based around an actual coach from the Maple Leaves like back in the 60s. His name was Punch Imlach. He based it on the way I dressed and things, and he wanted the kind of old school, hard nosed, straight to the point, angry, mean coach. Maybe like back in the day of Vince Lombardi or something. Just in your face.

Paul Fischer: What are the challenges for you to find roles in movies that really interest you? How hard is it for you to find the kind of stuff that you want to do?

Verne Troyer: It’s difficult because a lot of people, most people, just look at somebody of my stature as being an elf or a leprechaun, you know, things like that. What was great about this film with Mike, it was really good that he kind of thought outside the box and cast me in this movie because normally you’d think that it would be an average size man. Having him give me that opportunity is a great stepping stone for me to show other people I can do many things.

Paul Fischer: How long ago did he tell you about the role? Was he working on the script? Was it something that he’d thought about in that process? Or was it something afterwards where he sort of had a realization?

Verne Troyer: No, I think he thought about it. He didn’t tell a lot of people. I found out when I was having dinner. I ran into him and he just mentioned something about it. And the next day I got a script in the mail and bam! I loved it and I jumped on top of it.

Paul Fischer: Were you part of the public readings that Mike had where everyone came and read the script? He put on a show and tested out the character.

Verne Troyer: No, I wasn’t a part of that. I knew that he did that and he didn’t get out of the Guru character. He stayed in it to test how it would be. But no, I wasn’t involved. The only way I knew about Mike doing that was all from the internet.

Paul Fischer: After you wrapped this film, you started working for Terry Gilliam on Imaginarium, could you talk a little bit about playing Percy, your character in the film?

Verne Troyer: His name is actually Percival St. Antoine de la Terrain San Sepulcral da Piedmonte III.

Paul Fischer: What a mouthful!

Verne Troyer: So you can just call me Percy.

Paul Fischer: That sounds like Terry.

Verne Troyer: Yeah.

Paul Fischer: What kind of character is he?

Verne Troyer: Kind of a sidekick to Christopher Plummer who plays Dr. Parnassus. It’s like a traveling theatre group that stops in certain places, you know, and entertains audiences.

Paul Fischer: After what happened with Heath, I know they reshot. Have you reshot stuff or did you just film at that one point.

Verne Troyer: No, I was part of their reshooting of it. We had some great people come in to help us finish the film kind of to give tribute to Heath.

Paul Fischer: How many more weeks of shooting did they have to do?

Verne Troyer: When we were in London, we just shot exterior scenes, that’s all. So we had all the interiors to still shoot when we went to Vancouver.

Paul Fischer: What was it like? There were some pretty heavy hitters that came in to help out to finish this film. What was the vibe on set like and what was your experience working on it as a whole?

Verne Troyer: It was something different that I haven’t really done. I’ve done a little bit of drama like on Boston Public and other things, but this is a big movie role for me and it’s not really…it’s out of the comedy role. So, in that way, it was good and I need to do more things like that.

Paul Fischer: How did you find Terry Gilliam as a director?

Verne Troyer: Awesome. He has an eye for exactly what he wants and he and his DP Nicola (Pecorini) just work well together. You can’t believe the shots that he gets after you see it. It’s just beautiful.

Paul Fischer: Do you have any idea when it might come out?

Verne Troyer: It’s supposed to come out sometime in 2009.

Paul Fischer: Did you do much improv on this or were all your lines pretty much there on the page for The Love Guru?

Verne Troyer: They were pretty much there, but doing a Mike Myers film, everybody has to improv. If you have a scene with Mike and he improvs, what are you going to do? You need to be able to keep up with him. And he makes it fun.

Paul Fischer: You guys have something special. Does it just automatically switch on when you start working with him?

Verne Troyer: I don’t know how to explain it but we just seem to have this great chemistry. I guess great minds think alike.

Paul Fischer: Was it fun to have your own office that was your size and watch everybody else adjust to your world for a change?

Verne Troyer: Yeah, exactly. In the average size world I adjust to, you know, I’m used to everything. It was very different for me to get on this stage. It was like a different world that was very comfortable.

Paul Fischer: Have you talked to Mike about possibly doing another Austin Powers?

Verne Troyer: Personally no. If it happened, I would love to do it. I just haven’t really heard anything.

Paul Fischer: Are you signed up for a sequel to this?

Verne Troyer:If there was, I would be. But I don’t know. Since the Guru can teach a lot of different people, I don’t know if I’d be involved in that unless he wanted me, maybe I have a personal problem.

Paul Fischer: What are you doing next? Do you know?

Verne Troyer: I just got done with Imaginarium so I’m taking a little bit of a break doing some commercials and things.

Paul Fischer: How long was the shooting in Vancouver of Imaginarium?

Verne Troyer: About a month and a half almost. For me. There was probably two and a half months, three months or something.

Paul Fischer: So it was a healthy shoot?

Verne Troyer: Yeah.

Paul Fischer: What’s your favorite place for filming?

Verne Troyer: We shot Guru in Toronto and I fell in love with that city.

Paul Fischer: Why?

Verne Troyer: It reminded me of a miniature Chicago. I just fell in love with it.

Paul Fischer: Do you love traveling? Is there a part of the world you’d like to see?

Verne Troyer: Yeah, there’s a lot of places that I haven’t been to that I would love to see. What I try to do is I try to take these movie roles as my vacation. I just look for the ones that are traveling. But I have been to a lot of interesting places while working and eventually I will go and see the places I haven’t.

Paul Fischer: Do you share any of these Eastern philosophies that are put forth in the film in a comedic way? Does some of it stick with you and make you think “That’s actually pretty smart. It’s a wise thing”?

Verne Troyer: Like the things that Mike said?

Paul Fischer: Yeah. Like the DRAMA and all that.

Verne Troyer: I mean it’s funny. I’m not worried how you look at it.

Paul Fischer: Is there a certain kind of code or philosophy that you live by yourself?

Verne Troyer: I wouldn’t say a code or philosophy. I do believe that there is a higher power but I’m not here to throw it down somebody’s throat of anything. I mean I just believe.

Paul Fischer: It seems that there might have been a lot of stuff cut from this?

Verne Troyer: There was a lot of stuff cut. The movie was over two hours.

Paul Fischer: Were there scenes that you remember doing that were just really out there and you hope will make there way onto the DVD?

Verne Troyer: It’s so hard to remember because I did Imaginarium right afterwards. So I guess it wasn’t too funny if they didn’t put it in the film.

Paul Fischer: What’s the funniest thing that happened on set?

Verne Troyer: The funniest thing? I can’t just pinpoint one thing.

Paul Fischer: What was one good thing that happened?

Verne Troyer: I guess what I said at the end of the film and I didn’t know they had captured that. So I guess that’s the funniest thing.

Paul Fischer: That got a huge laugh. It was very, very funny.

Verne Troyer: Thank you.

Paul Fischer: For someone playing this temperamental coach yelling at the team, it seems you would be limited in terms of the PG-13 rating and what you could say. Were there any other takes where you got [inaudible]?

Verne Troyer: Yeah. I had other takes where it was inappropriate for me to say for a PG-13 film.

Paul Fischer: What about the physical stuff that you do in this movie? Was it sort of fun to get your hands and feet dirty?

Verne Troyer: I got started doing stunt work and I did that for 8 years and I fell into this so I love doing all of my own stunts. I’d rather do it than have somebody else do it.

Paul Fischer: That wasn’t you flying into the hockey goal?

Verne Troyer: That was a doll. I probably would have broken my neck. That was actually me sliding across the ice attached to the camera along for the ride.

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