Mike Myers says “Shrek” team refused to tell him character was meant for “SNL” costar Chris Farley

Mike Myers figured out that he wasn't the first choice for Shrek pretty quickly — but the team behind the film didn't want to admit it to his face.

The Austin Powers star reflected on voicing everyone's favorite ogre in an interview with the Good One podcast — and detailed how the filmmakers at DreamWorks Animation didn't want to fess up about his late Saturday Night Live costar, Chris Farley, being the first choice for the character.

"I looked at the maquette, you know, the little — it's made of clay — of all the people, and it looked exactly like Chris Farley," Myers remembered. "So I was at this meeting, it's my third meeting, I said, 'Guys, was this offered to Chris Farley and then he died?'"

Despite Myers explicitly asking that question, he says the filmmakers still denied the truth. "Everyone looked at their shoes," he recalled. "I said, 'No, but seriously, really?' [They said,] 'No.'"

Related: Shrek 5 officially announced with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz returning

That still didn't set Myers at ease. "I get into the parking lot and I turn, I go, 'I think, I think this was Farley's,'" he said. "It was! And I was right, but they didn't tell me."

Myers and Farley were castmates together on SNL from 1990 to 1995, and the latter comedian played small roles in both of the former's Wayne's World movies. Farley launched his career as a big-screen comedic leading man with films like 1995's Tommy Boy and 1997's Beverly Hills Ninja, and the role of Shrek was specifically written for him. His brother, Kevin Farley, said that Shrek originally "was a little bit more like Chris, like a humble, bumbling innocent guy."

Related: Chris Farley voices Shrek in rare video clip

Farley had recorded a significant amount of dialogue for the film before his untimely death in 1997, and the studio ultimately opted to scrap his work and retool the movie with Myers in the role.

However, Myers said that he didn't immediately give the character his defining Scottish accent. “I did it in a very thick Canadian accent, thicker than I have," Myers said on the podcast. "I assumed that ogres were working people in that world… growing up working class, I thought a Canadian accent should be great. So, I tried it and I just didn't connect to it."

Myers said that he wanted to pivot to the Scottish accent after completing some work on the film. "I said, 'Listen, Farquaad's English, Eddie [Murphy]'s hilarious in it — African-American voice.' I said, 'Scottish people are working class people, and it's in that Euro-world. You know what I mean?'" he recalled.

Related: The voice cast of Shrek: Where are they now?

However, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg didn't want to backtrack again. "Jeffrey said, 'No, I like what you're doing,'" Myers remembered. "And I said, 'I don't, Jeffrey.' And he goes, 'No, it's fine.' He goes, 'We have to spend so much money to reanimate' — not true."

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Myers took his case to one of DreamWorks' other co-founders, Steven Spielberg. "I said, 'Steven, I want this to be good. I love this idea of, "You are beautiful to me,"'" he remembered. "I could play a guy that needs to learn to love himself and find himself beautiful, I can really connect to that. Because you can't rip people off, man. You have to give, every time you're out there, you have to give 100%, you know? So I said, 'If he's Scottish, I get that. I get the Scottish thing.' It fits with Farquaad, who's English. It fits with the Euro thing."

The actor said that Spielberg expressed hesitance about Myers starting over again. "I said, 'Let me just try it one more time,' and he said, 'It's going to cost millions,'" Myers recalled. "I said, 'Well, I'm not getting paid more to do this. You know, let me just do it.'"

The Jurassic Park filmmaker ultimately appreciated Myers' dedication to getting the voice right. "I did it. I got a letter from Steven Spielberg saying, 'Thank you so much for caring,'" he said. "And it's framed. It's in my house. He goes, 'You're absolutely right. You're 100% more connected to it.'"

Listen to the full interview with Myers above.

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