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Not everyone got the joke immediately, including the guy Myers brought in to direct. "The first time I read the script and saw Mike do it, I wondered if it was going to work," admits Jay Roach. "I wasn't a big fan of that level of camp, so it took a while for me to get it. Since then, many people have told me they didn't get it, either, until they shared the viewing experience with their kids."
Austin's goofy antics appealed to youngsters who appreciate anyone who's good at behaving badly (in a PG-13 way, of course) and to grownups who wish they could. Soon after the video was released, catchphrases like "Shagadelic!" and "Oh, behave!" caught on in schoolyards and trendy cocktail lounges alike. "I can't walk past a construction site without having 'Fancy a shag?' yelled at me," says Elizabeth Hurley, who co-starred in the first film and has a cameo in the sequel. Laughs Roach: "So many women have blamed us for giving men pickup lines. In the era of sexual harassment, I hope it's good for mankind to use a line that can be fairly innocent and still somewhat naughty."
Following his small dramatic roles as Steve Rubell in the unsuccessful film 54 and as a repentant drug dealer in the unreleased Pete's Meteor, Myers felt ready to have another go at Austin. Several prequel ideas were tossed about. In one, young Powers and Evil were classmates fighting over the same woman. Roach, returning to direct, suggested making Dr. Evil a square cold-war agent, with Austin "single-handedly creating the British invasion to mess with his head." But Myers and co-screenwriter, Michael McCullers, a former writer for SNL, decided on a plot that had Austin revisit the '60s to retrieve his stolen mojo, or raging libido. "If the first movie was Timecop, this one is Back to the Future," says Myers.
About 40% of the new film was improvised on the set, say several actors. Yet things weren't loosey-goosey for everyone. "It's not as lighthearted as it seems," says Heather Graham, who plays slinky CIA agent Felicity Shagwell. "They were pretty specific about the script. Mike would improvise and make up stuff, but if you forgot one word, they'd say, 'No, that's wrong.' It appears off the cuff, but it was kind of scientific and took hours to get right." Some over-the-top bits were chopped from the movie, many involving a grotesque adversary named Fat Bastard. Portrayed by Myers in an 80-lb. blubber suit that required hours to apply, the character was so foul that women at preview audiences were nauseated, not to mention Graham. "The worst was when he ate all this food and then spit on me," she says.