Mike Myers has denied Vancouver-based radio DJ Jay Brody’s accusation that the actor had him fired from The Love Guru set 16 years ago just for looking him in the eye.
Commenting on a video of Keanu Reeves helping the John Wick: Chapter 4 production team move equipment, Brody praised Reeves for his kindness and then said his piece about Myers on Sunday.
Jay Brody’s side of the story
“People saying that ‘he [Reeves] shouldn’t be praised for helping’ have no idea what it’s like working in film. Mike Myers had me fired off the set of The Love Guru because I made eye contact with him, and I was there as his body guard,” Brody tweeted. “Give Keanu his roses.”
Brody later clarified in a separate video that he wasn’t Myers’ direct bodyguard, but says instead that he was hired on the film’s security team during filming in 2007 to keep an eye on the actor’s trailer.
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“Years ago, I was working in film security,” Brody said in the video from his Sonic Radio show Carly and Jay. “I got a call from a company that hired out guards and they said, ‘Do you want a job on the film The Love Guru? ‘ and I’m like, ‘Sure, what will I be doing?’” he recalled, adding that he was told, “‘You’ll be basically guarding Mike Myers’ trailer on the film set, wherever they go.’ Sounds easy enough, I’ve done this before. They’re like, ‘Here’s the catch, can’t look at him.’ I’m like, ‘I need to look at him to see him to be his bodyguard.’ They’re like, ‘If you look at him, you’re going to get fired.’”
And, according to Brody, that’s what happened — although Myers’ camp denies it.
Brody went on to explain that he accidentally made eye contact with Myers because he didn’t immediately recognize him in his Love Guru costume, which included long hair and a beard.
“I’m sitting on the set, first day, first hour, we don’t know what he looks like yet. And I just see a man approaching in a long wig, a fake beard, and I’m like, I think that’s Mike Myers. I look down to not look at him because I don’t want to get fired, but I realized I can’t just let anyone into the trailer, so I look up, I catch his eye for a second, I give him a nod to let him know I’m cool, and then I look away,” he says. “And within an hour I get a phone call letting me know that I’m fired and I have to get off set because I broke this weird rule.”
Mike Myers’ side of the story
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, a rep for Myers said, “Mike knows nothing about this. Not aware of anyone being hired or fired.”
Reps for Myers did not immediately respond to MovieMaker‘s request for comment.
Marco Schnabel’s 2008 comedy The Love Guru followed Myers as Guru Pitka, an American who was raised in an Indian ashram. Pitka’s spiritual skills are put to the test when he accepts a $2 million offer to save a hockey player’s marriage. The film, which famously became a box office flop, also starred Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, and Ben Kingsley.
See Brody’s Twitter moment below.
Main Image: Mike Myers in The Love Guru. Photo credit: Paramount Pictures.