Dana Carvey And Mike Myers Hated Filming One Of Wayne's World's Most Famous Scenes
If you were a kid in the early 1990s, you were probably a fan of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in the "Saturday Night Live" sketch "Wayne's World." Myers played Wayne Campbell, a metal fan who shot a cable access show in his mom's basement with his buddy Garth Algar (Dana Carvey). The bit spawned a whole lot of catchphrases like the self-explanatory "schwing" when they saw a pic of a beautiful woman. Not every "SNL" sketch can support an entire movie, but "Wayne's World" not only managed one but two. In fact, it was the second "SNL" sketch to become a film after "Blues Brothers" and the first to get a sequel.
"Wayne's World," directed by Penelope Spheeris, infamously gave rise to a lot of rumors about Myers being difficult to work with during filming. In an episode of The Hollywood Reporter's "It Happened in Hollywood" podcast, Spheeris spoke about the experience, including the reasons Myers wasn't happy about certain things. Among those things was one of the most famous, and I would argue, best scenes in the entire film: Wayne, Garth, and some buddies (Lee Tergesen, Sean Sullivan, and Michael DeLuise) getting into their 1976 AMC Pacer, aka the Mirthmobile, and going for a ride while lip-syncing and head-banging to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," a song Myers had to fight to get into the film.
While fans loved that scene (the entire theater was head-banging along with the film when I first saw it), Spheeris said Carvey and Myers hated it. Exsqueeze me? Baking powder?
'I'm having a good time ... not'
Penelope Spheeris said of the scene:
"They hated doing it. They hated banging their head in the car. It hurt. [Metallica's] James Hetfield, all those headbangers, they're used to it. These guys weren't used to doing that. They didn't have the muscles in their neck, and it started hurting real bad. They started asking for Advil on the set. The worst part is Mike said not only does it hurt, it's not funny."
While I can sympathize with the neck aches as a lifelong metalhead, the "not funny" part seems odd. If you ask people who love the film (as I did in my extremely un-scientific poll over the holiday weekend), they'll usually say positive things about it. However, Spheeris explained in the podcast that Mike Myers hadn't been able to attend the test screenings where this and other gags received positive feedback. He'd watched it alone and "Wayne's World" isn't exactly the sort of movie built for that. I mean, I just rewatched that scene and giggled hysterically while alone at my desk, but it's a whole different experience with an entire theater singing along and throwing up devil horns. Maybe it just didn't hit the same way for him, watching it by himself. Maybe his neck still hurt or something.
If you want to revisit the film and head-bang along with the guys, "Wayne's World" is currently streaming on Max. Excellent! Just ... maybe keep some aspirin handy.