"I love playing Shrek."
Dear reader, if you've been missing the crude and rude Scottish ogre just as much as we have, it appears that we're not the only ones. With the fifth entry currently up in the air, voice actor Mike Myers has expressed interest in returning to 'Shrek' once again. Hell, he's up for playing the character a few times more, in fact.
DreamWorks' 'Shrek' films were a pillar of early 2000s animation, introducing the world to the mean ogre who lived happily ever after on his own in a remote swamp in the fairy-tale land of Duloc. His happiness was short-lived in the first film, however, when an excitable Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) strikes up a friendship with the titular character. After four main films, spin-offs, specials, dragons, weddings and plenty of fairy-tale humour, the 'Shrek' franchise is currently on hold; but this doesn't mean it's not as popular as it ever was.
Speaking with GQ about his most iconic movie characters ever, it didn't take long for the topic to land on the infamous ogre. It's widely known that when Mike Myers first voiced Shrek, he played the character as Canadian, but on a re-record, he decided to give him a Celtic twist (not unlike his character of Fat Bastard from the 'Austin Powers' movies).
Myers, who recently released a new Netflix series 'The Pentaverate', said of his time as the short-tempered but loveable ogre: "I loved the idea of taking a fairy tale and turning it on its head, and having it be that all the traditional bad guys are good guys, and all the traditional good guys are bad guys. And I realized it's a dramatic role. I mean, halfway through I went, 'There's an emotional centre here.'
"You know the old joke, 'I wouldn't want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member'? I have always felt that way. The concept of going from a self-loathing ogre to a self-accepting ogre was meaningful to me.
"I love playing Shrek. If I had to do one Shrek a year, I'd be thrilled."
Another 'Shrek' spin-off, 'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish', is set for release this December with Antonio Banderas back as the cat with claws. Salma Hayek, Florence Pugh and Olivia Colman are also part of the voice cast.
As far as 'Shrek 5' is concerned, the production is currently on hold. Initially said to be a "reinvention" of the story, there hasn't been any talk about the sequel for a number of years.
In regards to Mike Myers' other "shagadelic" character, Austin Powers, he teased earlier this month that there might be a sequel in the pipeline. Three spy/comedy films have been released in the franchise, the most recent being 'Austin Powers in Goldmember' from 2002.
