With the current onslaught of Austin Powers media attention, I’ve recently seen several interviews of our International Man of Mystery, Mike Myers. A fellow Canadian, this actor is living “the dream” but hasn’t forgotten his roots.
The first real impression he made on me was during the recent Winter Olympics hockey gold medal finals. He was interviewed during intermission of one of the games, and although he has become a resident and celebrity in the United States, he appeared wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey, and unabashedly cheered on the Canadian teams. Obviously this was aired on a Canadian network, but it still made me proud to be a citizen of the country that turned out such a patriotic actor.
Since then, I’ve seen Mike in a number of interviews, including “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” among others. I have always been incredibly impressed with the amount of respect he continues to show his home country. When asked where he is from, he always replies, “Scarborough, Canada,” instead of opting to reference Toronto as his hometown, although I’m sure a lot of Americans have no clue that it’s a suburb of Toronto (kind of the way Aurora is a suburb of Chicago – excellent). I was guilty of this very thing while working in the States. Instead of saying I was from Oshawa, I found it easier to say I was from Toronto, since most Americans have at least heard of Toronto (our nation’s capital?!). He makes constant references to being Canadian throughout nearly every interview I’ve seen. He’s impressed me far more than other Canadians actors, including Michael J. Fox, Jim Carrey and Eric McCormack. These guys should take lessons from him.
