Josh Zuckerman says landing his “Austin Powers in Goldmember” role was an honor — but the strange reason he got the audition still stings.
(PHOTO CREDIT: New Line Cinema)
More than two decades after the release of Austin Powers in Goldmember, actor Josh Zuckerman still has mixed feelings about how he first got his shot at playing the younger version of the franchise’s iconic villain.
Speaking in a recent interview with Pop Culture Planet, the School Spirits actor looked back at the unusual story behind his audition to portray a young Dr. Evil.
While he now laughs about it, Zuckerman admitted that the reason he was invited to audition has always felt a little… awkward.
According to Zuckerman, casting director Jeanne McCarthy happened to notice him during an episode of the political drama The West Wing.
But it wasn’t his performance that first caught her attention — it was his profile.
“She was watching The West Wing and looked up at the TV for a second,” Zuckerman recalled. “She saw my profile and apparently thought, ‘Oh! Dr. Evil!’”
The actor said the moment has stuck with him for years. “To this day I still take offense at that,” he joked during the interview, before adding with a laugh that the accidental discovery ultimately worked in his favor.
Despite the slightly bruised ego, Zuckerman said landing the role was a huge moment in his early career. He was already a fan of the Austin Powers films and remembers the casting process as highly competitive.
“It was a real honor,” he said. “I loved the first two movies, and there were a lot of auditions to get that role.”
In the 2002 comedy, Zuckerman appears in flashback scenes as “Young Evil,” showing the early years of the villain later played by Mike Myers. The sequence reveals how the character first crossed paths with his longtime associate Number 2.
The film featured a stacked ensemble cast including Beyoncé, Seth Green, Michael Caine, Michael York, Robert Wagner, Mindy Sterling and Verne Troyer.
Although Goldmember remains the most recent installment in the franchise, talk of another film never completely disappears. Myers himself hinted in 2024 that the door isn’t entirely closed.
When asked whether the eccentric spy world might return, the actor kept things mysterious. He said he “can neither confirm nor deny” any new project — but made one thing clear: the character still has life left in him.
“Absolutely,” Myers said when asked if Dr. Evil’s story could continue.
For Zuckerman, however, the biggest memory of the franchise will always be that strange moment when a quick glance at a TV screen changed his career.
