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Home> Entertainment> Film

Published 18:43 25 Aug 2023 GMT+1

Leaked footage shows how Shrek was originally supposed to sound

Mike Myers might be known for his iconic role in Shrek, but another actor was meant to be the grumpy green ogre.

Katherine Sidnell

Katherine Sidnell

Mike Myers might be known for his iconic role in Shrek, but did you know that the titular ogre was nearly played by someone else?

Originally, comic Chris Farley was meant to voice the creature feature but tragically died before he was able to complete the film.

Not only could we have had a different lead actor, but the ogre would have had a very different temperament.

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The SNL star had already been cast before his untimely death.
Getty/Paramount Pictures

It’s unclear how the video came to be leaked online, but the short clip was posted on Twitter and has original audio recorded by the late actor.

The scene even features Eddie Murphy’s Donkey and storyboard images, giving fans a glimpse of what the finished film could have been like.

As you can tell, the Saturday Night Live star had a very different vision of the grumpy green ogre.

In fact, Chris Farley’s brother even spoke about this whilst promoting a documentary about the late actor.

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“Originally the Shrek character was a little bit more like Chris, like a humble, bumbling innocent guy,” Kevin Farley told Yahoo, as he discussed the footage of his late brother in Shrek.

According to Collider, the actor had even recorded 85 per cent of the film’s audio, but sadly he wouldn’t live to see the film released.

Instead, Farley would suddenly pass away in 1997, aged just 33, after overdosing on cocaine and morphine in his Chicago apartment.

Years later, the role would be recast and given to Mike Myers, who adapted the script to make the character more bad-tempered and added his iconic Scottish brogue.

Mike Myers would eventually take on the role of the grumpy green ogre.
Getty/Axelle/Bauer-Griffin

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Speaking about the recasting years later, Kevin Farley said he ‘understood’ why he didn’t use his brother’s original recordings.

“I understand why [they replaced him]…They probably wanted to make Shrek 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, so,” he explained to Yahoo, when asked whether the family were disappointed by the decision.

However, the late actor’s brother wasn’t bitter toward Myers and revealed that he was hugely impressed with his performance.

The two actors starred together on SNL in the 90s.
Getty/Mitchell Gerber

“The studio needed to do what they needed to do. It was a bad time, bad timing… a tragedy,” he said, adding: “Mike did a great job with Shrek. He knocked it out of the park.”

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It's even more touching when you learn that Farley and Myers worked together on SNL in the early nineties.

However, fans will always wonder about Farley’s unfinished film, especially as it’s nearly 30 years since the actor’s untimely death.

Featured Image Credit: Dreamworks

Topics: Celebrity, TV and Film, Drugs

Katherine Sidnell
Katherine Sidnell

Katherine is an entertainment journalist with a love of all things nerdy. Starting out writing Doctor Who fan fiction as a kid, she has gone on to interview the likes of Matt Damon, James May and Dua Lipa to name a few. Published in The Sun, The Daily Mail and Evening Standard - she now joins Ladbible as resident nerd in chief.

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@ksidnell

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