Wayne’s World director Penelope Spheeris speaks out on Mike Myers 'feud'
The director of hit 1992 comedy Wayne's World has opened up on a behind the scenes 'feud' she had with Mike Myers that she says cost her the sequel.
There's plenty of reasons to watch Wayne's World as it's one of Mike Myers' funniest performances.
There's that moment they all sing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in the car and to top it all off, there's a brilliant bit where they get a whole load of product placement out of the way all at once.
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The director, Penelope Spheeris, had told Variety back in February 2022 that the rumours of a 'feud' were 'manufactured over the years by just gossip' and said they 'got along during the shoot'.
However, according to the director, she and Myers had a 'disagreement' once filming had wrapped.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter's It Happened In Hollywood podcast, she claimed that issues began when the film was first screened for test audiences who ended up loving it.
The director said that Myers' father had just died so he'd gone back up to Canada for the funeral and missed the 'great audience reaction' from the early movie screenings.
"That’s when the crap hit the fan," she said.
"He wasn’t there to witness the incredible audience reaction and look at the test cards and realize that we had something on our hands."
With his perception of the movie allegedly lacking the key context of a hugely positive audience reaction, Myers apparently watched the film for the first time by himself and came back to Spheeris with 11 pages of notes on things he wanted cut or changed.
"Most of them sucked," she said of his proposed alterations, which included a wish to cut out a scene where Wayne's ex-girlfriend Stacy (Lara Flynn Boyle) crashed her bike into a car.
The director then claimed that Myers wanted the scene cut out 'because she was getting the laugh, not him'.
According to Spheeris, Myers even thought the iconic 'Bohemian Rhapsody' moment wasn't funny, though that might have had something to do with the cast not enjoying filming it due to the neck pain they got from headbanging.
“They hated doing it. They hated banging their head in the car. It hurt." she said.
She said she really opposed the actor's suggestions and told movie producer, Lorne Michaels, that the film would be worse off if they followed the suggestions Myers had made.
The director said that response executives told her was: "Penelope, if you don’t change the movie, you won’t be able to direct Wayne’s World 2. Mike’s not going to approve you.
"We really want to do Wayne’s World 2 with Mike. We’re not going to tell him you won’t change it — you have to tell him."
While a few of his changes got made, Spheeris says she had to tell Myers most of his suggestions weren't happening and she said she 'got canned' for it.
A sequel to Wayne's World was greenlit shortly afterwards, but Stephen Surjik was in the director's chair for that one, with Spheeris saying that she pulled her phone out of the wall and 'cried for two weeks' before she 'got over it'.
UNILAD have contacted representatives of Mike Myers for comment.
Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity
Joe Harker