WAYNE'S WORLD Director Explains Why Mike Myers and Dana Carvey Hated Filming Its "Bohemian Rhapsody" Scene
The "Bohemian Rhapsody" scene in the 1992 film Wayne’s World has got to be one of the most iconic scenes in cinema. When Mike Myers and Dana Carvey jump into The Mirthmobile, a powder blue 1976 AMC Pacer, and start rocking out to Queen’s classic song, you just can’t help but smile and laugh. That scene has stuck with me ever since I first saw it, and I have fun memories of recreating that scene for fun with my friends.
We previously shared that Myers had to fight to get that song into the movie! There was another song that the studio and the producers wanted to use in the film, and it was a Guns N’ Roses song. But, Myers believed that music just didn’t have the right comic value for the scene he envisioned. Myers said:
"But what I remember most about this was fighting very, very hard for it to be 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' and they didn't want to do it. They wanted to do Guns N' Roses, which I love Guns N' Roses, but I didn't have anything funny for it. And then Lorne [Michaels - 'Saturday Night Live' creator and producer] was like, 'You really want it?' I went, 'Yeah.' So Lorne fought for it on my behalf. Lorne Michaels, and Dana and I talked about five days ago, about [how] our neck's still hurt from 'ba ba ba bom bom bom bom.'"
It’s great that they were able to work things out and get to use the Queen song, but shooting the scene itself was a horrible experience for Myers and Carvey. During a recent interview with director Penelope Spheeris on the "It Happened in Hollywood" podcast, she explained why they hated shooting the scene, saying:
"They hated doing it. They hated banging their head in the car. It hurt. [Metallica's] James Hetfield, all those headbangers, they're used to it. These guys weren't used to doing that. They didn't have the muscles in their neck, and it started hurting real bad. They started asking for Advil on the set. The worst part is Mike said not only does it hurt, it's not funny."
Ouch! That whole “not funny” part seems so weird because it’s one of the best parts of the film! Spheeris does explain why Myers didn’t quite connect with it, revealing that he hadn’t been able to attend the test screenings to experience how the audience was reacting. Instead, he watched it alone, and this movie is just not meant to be watched alone! The reaction of the audience during a scene like that takes it to a new level! Regardless, it didn’t hit for him, but it hit for the fans, and that’s what matters.
Carvey previously talked about shooting this scene and said it was torture. When he was asked about it, he said:
"Nah, it was pure torture. You know I was not 14 at the time, although in the first page of the script it says Garth finally gets his pubes---I'm like 35. We went out there, some town, East of LA and we just sort of started doing that [headbang motion]. After the fifth hour, yeah, two vertebrae actually just popped out of the back and hit Mike Myers in his eye. No, but yeah it was very, very, very, very painful. And also the fact that I had not memorized the lyrics of the song."
While it was a painful experience for the two main stars, they got through it and now we can enjoy it any time we want!