Mike Myers has revealed he had an anxiety attack when he first joined Saturday Night Live because he felt intimidated by the level of talent within the cast.
The actor and comedian, who was a cast member on the sketch show between 1989 and 1995, recalled feeling a sense of imposter syndrome when he met his castmates Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon.
“When I got to Saturday Night Live and saw how f***ing good these guys were, I was scared s***less. I had an anxiety attack,” Myers told Vulture’s Good One comedy podcast.
“Phil Hartman. I mean, Dana Carvey. [Kevin] Nealon, Jan Hooks, who I also worship. You know, it was unbelievable,” said Myers.
It was Myers’ performances in character as Wayne Campbell – a fictional rock music fan who hosts a public-access TV show, Wayne’s World, from his parent’s basement – that caught the attention of former SNL writer Lorne Michaels when he debuted the character at a Second City show.
Speaking about that performance, Myers recalled: “I did my sketch…and I came from the audience and it f***ng killed, which was unbelievable because I had only been in the show for like two seconds.”
“I mean, it was cheers, stomps and whistles. It was a jet taking off. I don’t know what happened, but the audience just went for it and loved it.”
The comedian added that he got a call two weeks later from Michaels, who said: “I understand you do a Wayne character.”
Myers, who is Canadian, admitted that it was only years before he joined SNL that he became aware of what it was.
He described seeing it on TV but “never watched it” due to it clashing with The Toronto Maple Leaf game each week.
“Because I had one of those top-loading VCRs, and it was on at exactly the same time as the Toronto Maple Leaf game, so I could only tape one thing,” he explained. “And of course, I watched the Toronto Maple Leafs. So I didn’t watch it for those years.”
Eventually, Myers watched SNL and was taken aback by the humour.
“I checked it out and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s really, really funny.”
Myers later praised Michaels, sharing that he’s “learned so much from him”.
“He’s very generous, Lorne, with telling you the black arts, the real politic of how things get made. The pragmatism.”
Myers’ character Wayne Campbell spawned two movies, 1992’s Wayne’s World and its 1993 sequel, before he went on to portray Dr Evil in the Austin Powers film series and voiced the title ogre in the 2001 film Shrek.
The actor is expected to return to voice Shrek in a fifth film, with DreamWorks Animation confirming that the film is in development for a July 2026 release.
