It’s nearly impossible at this point to ponder the character Shrek with anything but a Scottish accent, but as fans know this wasn’t what was originally recorded for the character. Myers has been open in the past about how he re-recorded the dialogue for the entire movie but speaking in a new interview he revealed why he chose Scottish, but also debunked a myth about how much it cost the film to have him undergo this change for the character. “They spent some money but not the amount of money that has bene reported in the press, I’d like to point out,” Myers said during a Vanity Fair interview looking back at some of his “And by the way, I recorded it all for free one more time and just happy to do so ’cause I wanted it to be good.”
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“Fairy tales were about the class system,” he added. “You had worker people, and then you had this people who were, for no reason, the king and queen. They weren’t elected or anything. So I always thought that ogres were working people, growing up as a working person. I tried it as a Canadian, and it just didn’t have any oomph. And then I said, ‘Can I record it again as Scottish?’ Because I know fairy tales are a Eurocentric form. Scottish people are near and dear to me. I have relatives in Scotland and background in Scottish, and they’re working people. It’s a working people accent. And they went, ‘No, we like it the way it is,’ and I said, ‘Oh, come on, just let me.’ Steven Spielberg (executive producer) said, ‘Well, why don’t you try it once?’ He sent me a lovely letter saying, ‘You’re so right. It’s way better as Scottish. Thank you so much.’”
Myers also revealed another Shrek tidbit, confirming he never saw Eddie Murphy while recording the dialoguye for the movie and only saw him in the flesh when they were promoting the film. “I never saw Eddie Murphy until the press junket, but I fell in love with Donkey, just hearing his voice to the headphones and then when you start to see the animation, and I love that character, Donkey, and I wish Donkey lived in my house. I love that character so much.”
The actor recently revived his Shrek voice for a gag in his new Netflix TV series, and fans of the animated franchise frankly went nuts for it.
