Released in 2001, the DreamWorks animated film Shrek was a massive commercial success, raking in $484 million across the globe and winning the first-ever Oscar for Best Animated Feature. It was a pop culture phenomenon that would spawn three sequels (Shrek 2 would almost double the original’s haul) and a Puss In Boots spinoff. Everything worked, from the clever premise, the animation, and the voice work, especially the pairing of Saturday Night Live alumni Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy as Shrek and Donkey. But, did you know that Myers wasn’t the first choice to play the green ogre?
Chris Farley Was At the Height of His Career
That distinction goes to another SNL veteran, Chris Farley. In the mid-1990s, you’d be hard-pressed to find many actors funnier than Farley. Following his popular run on the skit comedy series, Farley was quickly becoming a leading man in Hollywood, thanks to the 1995 hit, Tommy Boy. With his career’s upward momentum continuing, Farley was cast as Shrek. Before his death in December 1997, he had reportedly completed about 85% of his dialogue. A leaked YouTube clip of the recordings gives us not just a Shrek that’s completely different from Myers' version, but also a Chris Farley like we had never heard before.
Along Came Mike Myers
In the 1990s, Mike Myers was just as popular as Farley thanks to his stint on SNL and the Wayne’s World phenomenon. At the end of the decade, he would strike gold again with the Austin Powers films. His turn as Shrek was one more in a long string of successes. In Shrek, Myers gave us an ogre who could be loud, cranky, crass, and childish. The choice to give the ogre a Scottish accent seemed redundant, as Myers had already used the same voice before in So I Married An Axe Murderer, and of course, as Fat Bastard in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. What seemed an odd choice worked, however, perhaps because audiences already had come to accept and love that quirky accent. In animated family films, audiences aren’t exactly looking for something too outside the box. For whatever reason, Myers' choice to use the Scottish accent yet again succeeded, making Shrek, for many, the most loved character of Myers’ career.
Farley's Take on Shrek
Chris Farley’s take seemed like the opposite of Myers'. With his version of Shrek, we would have gotten an ogre who was more innocent and vulnerable. We would have gotten a Shrek who was more like the real Chris Farley. The Chris Farley audiences got to know on Saturday Night Live and in the movies, and the Chris Farley in real life could, at times, be two different people. Farley on TV was loud and animated, himself like a cartoon that had come to life. Few comedians have ever had his level of energy for physicality. It’s why we loved him. Off-screen, he could be like that as well, reportedly, but mostly when he was in an altered state, or because he was insecure and wanted people to like him.
Friends and family have described the real Chris Farley as a lonely, self-conscious man who didn’t think he was good enough or attractive enough for love. He was also a deeply spiritual man, a devout Catholic who made sure to go to mass every week no matter what. When he was found dead, a friend made sure to put rosary beads in Chris’ hand because he knew how much his faith meant to him. “Originally the Shrek character was a little bit more like Chris, like a humble, bumbling innocent guy,” Chris’ brother Kevin Farley told Yahoo! Entertainment in 2015.
What Could Have Been
In the leaked clip of Farley as Shrek that appeared on YouTube the same year, it’s easy to see what Kevin Farley meant. Chris Farley plays his Shrek against type. He wasn’t the boisterous, over-the-top comedian that we knew and loved so well. The physical antics that were a staple of his work couldn’t be relied upon. All Farley had to depend on was his voice. The route he chose challenged his reputation rather than leaning into it. It had to be intentional, a way of acting with his hands tied behind his back, ready to show everyone that he could be more than the goof who fell down. Ironically, Chris Farley’s version of Shrek is more subdued than the one Mike Myers played. It’s toned down. There is no accent. It’s just Farley speaking in his natural voice, but in a way that we have seldom heard. He’s quieter and laid back, shy and vulnerable. Sure, audiences had seen what Farley could do as a dramatic actor. There were glimpses here and there of what could have been, such as when we see his character doubt himself or mourn his father in Tommy Boy. That level of vulnerability, while seldom used, seemed to come as easy to Farley as throwing himself through a table.
That’s not to say that Farley’s Shrek wouldn’t have been funny. The loud moments are there. There is chemistry in the give and take between him and Eddie Murphy’s Donkey. You can’t help but smile when listening to his take, but his Shrek is more of an everyman (or everyogre). There’s also a deeper connection that forms to Shrek, and that would have formed around Farley as an actor and a person, in how he approached the role. In one moment of the released clip, Shrek is talking to Donkey (Eddie Murphy had done his voice work with Farley as well), and you can hear the doubt and the fear of failure in his voice. When he tells Donkey in a subdued tone, “I want a home…and someone to share it with, okay?” it’s heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking because we can feel the character, even though there’s no video but simply just a voice. It’s also heartbreaking because we can hear the real Chris, and we know that his life was cut short so soon after.
Mike Myer’s take on Shrek is magnificent. There is no denying that. But, Chris Farley’s, as something completely different, could have been too. Myers treated Shrek as a cartoon. That’s okay. He was one. Ironically, Farley, so known for being a cartoon in real life, made his Shrek more real and somber. Shrek became something more than a character in an animated film. If Chris Farley had lived, the role would have transformed his career and shown a different side to his acting capabilities. Who knows where it would have taken him.