Mike Myers sur le pentaverate et jouant plusieurs personnages

What if a secret society really was controlling the world — and they were actually, well … nice?

That’s the premise of The Pentaverate, the new Netflix limited series that brings Mike Myers back to the screen in multiple roles, including the members of the show’s titular, Illuminati-like organization, as well as the Canadian journalist on a mission to expose them and countless other, wonderfully ridiculous characters. The six-episode series was created and co-written by Myers, and features Keegan-Michael Key, Ken Jeong, Debi Mazar, Richard McCabe, and Lydia West playing supporting roles alongside a multitude of eccentric characters portrayed by the Austin Powers and Wayne's World étoile.

“Seeing Mike go from one character to another, and working in a scene with him playing two characters or more was fascinating,” West told Digital Trends of her time on the set with Myers. The It’s A Sin actress portrays Reilly Clayton, the young assistant to Canadian local journalist Ken Scarborough (Myers), who sets out to expose The Pentaverate to the world. The pair are assisted in their mission by Anthony Lansdowne, a grungy conspiracy theorist also portrayed by Myers — a scenario that has West often acting alongside two of Myers’ characters in the same scene.

“It was amazing to see just how he would just switch from one character to another in the space of 24 hours,” recalled West.

That praise for Myers’ ability to bounce between multiple characters — a talent on display throughout his career — was echoed by many of West’s fellow Pentaverate cast members, including Community and The Hangover actor Ken Jeong, who plays smarmy casino mogul Skip Cho in the series.

“Mike Myers is one of the reasons why I got into comedy in the first place. So imagine how it feels when he calls you and says, ‘I wrote this part for you. Will you do it?'” recalled Jeong. “Just to watch him work, it was so fulfilling to watch how he does it — because he is one of a kind. He is a unicorn. There is no one like him, and I just got to watch the best do it. It was truly incredible.”

Speaking with Digital Trends during a press event for the series, Myers explained the series’ origin: The concept of The Pentaverate first introduced in his 1993 film So I Married An Axe Murderer. A seemingly throwaway line, in which the conspiracy-loving father of the film's lead character matter-of-factly tells his son (both played by Myers, of course) about The Pentaverate, became the seed for this series, which debuts almost exactly 30 des années plus tard.

For Myers, though, his fascination with conspiracy theories dates back even further.

“My mom was in the Royal Air Force and had a security clearance, so I always knew that secrets were out there in the world and that there are good secrets,” he said. “The ones that defeat the Nazis, of course, are the best secrets. My mom wasn’t in MI5 or MI6 or anything, but you can see some of that — my obsession with that world of secrets — in Austin Powers, for example.”

“But people being obsessed with conspiracy theories ebbs and flows,” he continued. “At the time I did So I Married An Axe Murderer, they were everywhere. And then that sort of went away. But it’s come back again lately, so my wife was like, ‘You’re so obsessed with the Illuminati, the Masons, all of those things, and you have this idea for a series. Why don’t you pitch it?'”

After getting the green light from Netflix, the next step was finding a director who could not only capture Myers’ vision for the series, but also adapt to the unique on-set environment of a film in which the co-writer and star also plays nearly half the featured characters in the film. Myers found that filmmaker in Look Around You and Brockmire director Tim Kirkby, who directs all six episodes of The Pentaverate.

“I had seen his fantastic show Look Around You, and I saw this as a British-style limited series, which I love that they do in England,” recalled Myers. “I knew from his work that it was going to be a celebration of the eccentric, and it really is one of the greatest collaborations I’ve ever had.”

It appears to have been an inspired pairing, too, as Kirkby indicated that the logistical machinations required to produce the series were a welcome challenge, with each day bringing a new puzzle of sorts to solve.

“I don’t think we were ever really ready to shoot,” he laughed. “That's the thing: You can pick at the schedule and discuss how it's going to be shot forever, but because of the multicharacter format, my job was really just to put the creative scaffolding around Mike and give him the playground to feel relaxed and go pour ça. … It was challenging, but that’s exciting to me. You just have to figure it out, and I love that.”

En plus des nouvelles expériences que la série offrait à la fois derrière la caméra et devant elle, Le Pentaverate avait également au moins un membre de la distribution à découvrir une nouvelle théorie du complot préférée - celle qui a toujours son cerveau en cours de prolongation.

"Pendant que nous tournions [des scènes pour] The Canconcon - la Convention canadienne de la théorie du complot - j'ai vu un signe qui disait:" Les bébés pigeons existent-ils? "", Se souvient West en riant. "Et j'ai juste eu ce moment de pensée:" Attends, je n'ai jamais vu de bébé pigeon de toute ma vie. Existent-ils réellement? Quelqu'un en a-t-il vu un? Où sont les nids? '»

Tout en plaisantant, West et le reste de la distribution de soutien de la série ont revenu à plusieurs reprises au retour de Myers à Myers à Spotlight dans The Pentaverate - son premier rôle en direct et avec le rôle de 2008 depuis 2008 Love Guru_. Le fait que le deuxième film dans lequel il ait joué est maintenant le ramène maintenant à l'écran trois décennies après que ce film soit non plus perdue pour Myers.

Demandé ce qu'il pensait de la susmention So j'ai épousé un meurtrier de hache maintenant, Myers semblait vraiment touché par les fans d'affection de cette comédie sombre encore pour cela, et jusqu'où il est venu entre la sortie de ce film et la première de _the Pentaverate.

"C'est l'un de mes films préférés que j'ai réalisés", a-t-il déclaré à propos de So j'ai épousé un meurtrier de hache. «Je suis tellement reconnaissant et heureux que ce soit coincé. Je ne savais pas que j'allais pouvoir faire ça pour gagner ma vie quand j'étais enfant à Toronto, et avoir des films toujours pertinents dans la culture est incroyablement gratifiant. Cela me fait bouger.

Tour six épisodes de le pentaverate priemere 5 mai sur netflix.

The Pentaverate (2022)

TV-MA 1 saison

Genre Comédie

Cast Mike Myers, Ken Jeong, Keegan-Michael Key

Créé par Mike Myers

Regarder sur Netflix

Regarder sur Netflix

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