Interview with Mike Myers

　　Q: You’ve said that the Austin Powers films are a tribute* to the memory of your late* father. Has making three films helped you come to terms with his death?A: The genesis* of this whole thing was my dad, who died 11 years ago, so it was appropriate that the third film was more pointedly about Austin’s father. Shooting this one was kind of like a two-month party, we would play music between takes*, and other movies that were shooting on our lot* would play hookey*, come over and hang out* and stuff. We had a great time.Q: You share a scene with your screen dad — played by Michael Caine — that is made up of indecipherable* cockney* rhyming slang*. Where did you learn that?A: My dad was from Liverpool, and he picked it up in the army. He’d often come out with this stuff. My Canadian friends would come over and say “Wow! You’re going to have jockey’s whips for dinner?” and hear him talk about crossing the frog, or going up the apples and pears.Q: Are you concerned about Austin’s political incorrectness?A: It’s so funny. When you’re writing these things, you’re in a room making each other laugh, you really have very little sense of political correctness or incorrectness. This is a question that Europe tends to ask and America doesn’t.

　　(SD-Agencies)(Difficulty: senior)

　　— after he made Austin Powers III