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Shrek voice actor Mike Meyers has revealed that the iconic role was offered to him while he was in the midst of sobbing over Saving Private Ryan. Meyers added that his initial reaction was that Shrek was the “worst [movie] title” he’s ever heard in his life.
During a recent interview, Mike Meyers, who most recently starred in the 2022 film Amsterdam and the Netflix series The Pentaverate that same year recalled being offered the titular role in Shreak was he was walking out of the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s seminal World War II film Saving Private Ryan.
Saving Private Ryan premiered in the United States in July 1998, and Shrek hit theaters three years later in 2001.
“I went to the premiere of Saving Private Ryan, and Jeffrey Katzenberg comes up to me afterward in the lobby and brings his daughters, who then do the dance sequence from Austin Powers. This was after such a heavy movie, and I was in tears because my parents were in WWII,” Meyers explained during a recent interview with Vulture.
“I was shell-shocked and then they’re doing the dance, and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s great. Read a room!’ He said, ‘Mike, would you ever do an animated movie? It’s called Shrek.’ And I go, ‘Well, that’s the worst f—— title I’ve ever heard in my life.’ So he said, ‘Just come down and see it.’ So I saw it and I liked that it turned fairy tales on its head. I thought that was really, really smart.”
The Shrek franchise would go on to become a massive success as its the 17th highest-grossing film franchise of all time, ahead of the likes of Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Mission: Impossible.
A fifth film in the franchise is currently in the works and is scheduled to hit movie theaters in the United States on July 1, 2026. Eddie Murphy, who voices Donkey, and Cameron Diaz, who voices Princess Fiona, will both be returning alongside Meyers.