There are a lot of funny and memorable scenes in Wayne's World, but none of them quite compare to the "Bohemian Rhapsody" sequence from the beginning of the movie. Wayne, Garth and their friends rock out to the classic Queen song in their car, banging their heads and lip-synching along with the track. It's a classic moment in modern comedy, but in the real world it was actually a spectacularly bad time for the actors. Dana Carvey admitted as much while recently looking back on filming the scene:
Nah, it was pure torture. You know I was not 14 at the time, although in the first page of the script it says Garth finally gets his pubes---I'm like 35. We went out there, some town, East of LA and we just sort of started doing that [headbang motion]. After the fifth hour, yeah, two vertebrae actually just popped out of the back and hit Mike Myers in his eye. No, but yeah it was very, very, very, very painful. And also the fact that I had not memorized the lyrics of the song.
Dana Carvey appeared as a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden, where the host asked him what it was like to film the "Bohemian Rhapsody" scene. Turns out, it wasn't great. Carvey was not a happy camper while filming the scene, but I don't think anyone would be after banging their head back and forth for some five hours. The whole experience left Carvey sore and it didn't help matters that he didn't know the lyrics to the Queen song. He told James Corden that he just moved his mouth up and down to make it look like he was lip-syncing. Acting!
Despite the joyousness of the scene, it wasn't a fun time for the people involved. Wayne's World director Penelope Spheeris told a similar story about how Dana Carvey and Mike Myers hated shooting the scene and constantly complained why it was even necessary. Of course, we're glad that they did finish the scene because it helps set the tone for the entire movie and it's just a blast to watch.
Speaking of a blast to watch, here's the "Bohemian Rhapsody" scene in question. Now that I know Dana Carvey didn't know the words, I can kind of tell that he's just pretending. Check it out.
Dana Carvey later made an intriguing proposal to James Corden that they get Garth and Wayne to appear on Corden's hit segment, Carpool Karaoke. Should that ever happen, fingers crossed they can power through "Bohemian Rhapsody" for just a few measly minutes.
