Mike Myers has no regrets after his very public dig at President Donald Trump and his right hand man Elon Musk on Saturday Night Live.
The Canadian Austin Powers star caused a stir by wearing a “Canada is Not for Sale” shirt during the closing credits on SNL last month.
Over the weekend he told The New York Times that the message was meant as a rebuke of both men’s threats to annex the U.S.’ northern neighbor and make it the “51st state.”
“What happened came from my ankles and from my brain and from my heart, and it was not about me—it was about my country,” he said. “I wanted to send a message home to say that I’m with you, you know.”
He also mouthed “elbows up” twice into the camera, referring to Canadian hockey player Gordie Howe’s catchphrase against aggression on the rink.
Since the start of Trump’s second term, both he and Musk have ruthlessly attacked Canada.
Musk has previously commented that it is “not a real country,” and Trump said in an interview with Time Friday that he was “not trolling” about making Canada a state, calling it an “interesting case.”
He also repeatedly referred to former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau,” implying that the country was already part of the United States.
Earlier on in the episode, Myers took on the persona of billionaire Elon Musk, barging into a meeting between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, played by James Austin Johnson and Mikey Day respectively, with a chainsaw in hand.
But as the show went on, he said he just “got angrier and angrier,” which ultimately pushed him to take a stance in front of millions of Americans on live TV.
“To the extent that Elon Musk is involved in our democratic government, it goes against how I feel as a Canadian,” he said. “We don’t have a distrust of the government. We have a belief in good government.”
SNL’s stage is no stranger to political statements and acts of defiance. Sinéad O’Connor also caused a stir when she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II in 1992, and Kanye West went on a pro-Trump rant while wearing a Make America Great Again hat in 2018.
Myers is an American citizen (”I took my oath very seriously”), has an American passport, married an American woman, and has three American children.
But he also noted that “no one is more Canadian than a person who no longer lives in Canada,” which made him even more inclined to speak up for his country.
“What’s happened has really hurt our feelings,” he said. “We love America. We love you guys. We don’t understand what this madness is.”
Canadian media praised Myers for the move, which prompted him to take his political involvement a step further by making a TV ad for Canada’s Liberal Party dissing Trump.
In the ad, Myers asks Prime Minister Mark Carney “will there always be a Canada?” and Carney assures him that there will be, Myers then revealing his “Never 51” Canadian jersey.
Myers told the New York Times that “fascism doesn’t like to be ridiculed; it likes to be feared.”
“Satire is an important tool in the toolbox to say that this is not normal — that the cuts he’s making are not normal,” he added.
The Canadian actor was an SNL cast member between 1989 and 1995, and made his first appearance on the show in over a decade for its 50th anniversary special in February. The March episode in question was his second appearance of the year.
Since that show, Myers has taken on the role of Musk three more times this season.
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