Law & Order SVU star Mariska Hargitay took a break from solving dark crimes on her hit show when she appeared in The Love Guru. The feature was a lighthearted comedy based on a character created by Mike Myers. Myers and Hargitay would eventually become good friends, which led to Hargitay’s involvement in the film.
But when they met each other for the first time, Hargitay didn’t know what to make of Myers.
How Mariska Hargitay reacted to Mike Myers
Myers’ The Love Guru was based on a character the comedian came up with in the 90s named Guru Pitka. Before the character’s cinematic debut, the Austin Powers star spent much of his time workshopping and refining the persona on the comedy circuit. Hargitay once confided that she became a part of the Guru’s comedic act before the pair had even officially met.
In an interview with TV Guide, she explained they both had a mutual friend in producer Eric Gilliland. Gilliland mentioned Hargitay’s name to Myers, and Myers kept saying Hargitay’s name in-character as Guru Pitka during his comedy shows. Soon, Hargitay would go see one of Myers’ shows personally. And she had no idea what was going on with Myers’ performance.
“The first thing out of his mouth is, ‘I am Guru Pitka. Mariska Hargitay.’ I thought I was being punk’d. I’m going, ‘OK, is this a joke on me?’ He must have said my name 60 times,” she said.
Despite the awkward encounter, the two would go on to become great friends afterwards. Myers would even help Hargitay fulfill a lifelong dream of hers by casting her in The Love Guru. Hargitay’s heart had always been in comedy, and the feature was an opportunity for the actor to flex her comedic chops.
“Then last fall, I get a call and it was like, ‘Hi, this is Mike Myers.’ And I’m like, ‘Are you sure?’ He asked me if it was OK to use my name in the movie,” she said. “He sent me the script and said, ‘I promise you I’ll take care of you.’ And then asked me to be in the movie! I’ve been wanting to do comedy for 15 years and I keep getting cast as cops. So I flew up there and we just had a blast. It was the most fun I’ve had in years.”
Why Mike Myers kept saying Mariska Hargitay’s name as Guru Pitka
It turns out that Hargitay’s name became a sort of catchphrase for Myers’ Guru character. In an interview with Collider, Myers asserted that he wanted to come up with a unique catchphrase to say while in the role. It’s here that Gilliland suggested Hargitay’s name, which Myers eventually went with.
After being in on the joke, Hargitay had a good time with it. She even sent the Wayne’s World star a gift referencing the bit.
“Recently, she sent me an unauthorized T-shirt from the internet that says, ‘Mariska Hargitay, Mariska Hargitay.’ That’s so perfect. She’s awesome and when you get to know her, she is, in fact, a blessing,” Myers said.
Meanwhile, Hargitay quipped that Myers helped demonstrate to others how to say her name.
“It took Mike Myers to finally teach everybody how to pronounce my name properly! It’s not Marissa Hagerty. God bless Mike Myers,” she said.
Mariska Hargitay’s manager was worried she wouldn’t like ‘SVU’ because it wasn’t comedy
Hargitay may have become more known for darker material like SVU. But in her earlier years, doing a show like SVU came as a bit of a shock to some. The actor commented that she was initially interested in doing more lighthearted, comedic projects.
So, when her manager got wind of the SVU opportunity, he figured Hargitay would’ve turned SVU down. But the manager couldn’t have been more wrong.
“My manager was worried because it was very dark and not up my alley, because I liked comedy. And I was like, ‘This is right up my alley.’ Never in my life had something been more known to me,” she once told Parade.
