Seth Green Played His Austin Powers Character As If He Was In A Drama
I don't care what anybody says, "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" absolutely holds up. Yeah, it's extremely stupid, but that's why it's great! The first "Austin Powers" film isn't trying to be anything more than it is, and that's refreshing. It's a comedy where Mike Myers plays multiple characters, and that rules! Okay, sure, parts of it haven't aged very well, but that's to be expected with any comedy of yesteryear. Fortunately, there wasn't anything absolutely horrific, so I feel comfortable continuing to defend the film as a favorite.
One of the funniest parts of the film is the relationship between Dr. Evil, one of Mike Myers' roles, and his son, Scott Evil, played by Seth Green (of being dangled over a trash can by Bill Murray fame). Dr. Evil is, as you can imagine, evil, a caricature of the more ridiculous Bond villains you would see during the Roger Moore era. He's played extremely silly, as are the majority of the characters in the film. His son, Scott, however, is a fairly regular teenager. He just wants to spend more time with his dad, and sometimes he lashes out emotionally. Scott appears out of place in the movie as a moody teenager hanging out in a supervillain's lair, but that's obviously quite funny.
According to a 2020 Vanity Fair interview with Green, his playing Scott straight was a very intentional choice he made with the character. By envisioning himself as a character from a drama lost in a comedy film, Green made what could have been a one-note joke a much more memorable character in a movie full of them.
Lost in a comedy
When "Austin Powers" was being filmed, Seth Green was probably best known for his work on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," a show that didn't take itself very seriously. But when he was offered the role of Scott Evil, Green was actually very focused on becoming a "serious" actor. In the interview, Green went into depth about the approach he took to the character, and how he brought some of his serious acting chops with him into the role:
"My take on it was that Scott Evil is in a drama while everyone around him is in a ridiculous comedy. 'Cause I'd been seeing so many angry, violent, or outrageous teenagers on things like 'Jerry Springer' and they all seemed victim of the same kind of parental apathy. That, to me, was very funny to explore when you have a character that is as bold and as silly as Dr. Evil, who is trying as sincerely as he can to form a relationship with his teenage son, the notion of that teenage son being legitimately angry or hurt by the lack of participation in his own upbringing, that just struck me as very funny."
Green was right, as the dynamic between the surprisingly well-meaning Dr. Evil and his wayward son was both funny and glaringly realistic in the face of such an absurd movie. The character would go on to appear in all three "Austin Powers" movies, and we can only hope he would appear in the Dr. Evil-focused sequel Mike Myers has allegedly been planning for years. After all, Dr. Evil would be nothing without his beloved son.