More than 20 years after Austin Powers in Goldmember hit theaters, actress Elizabeth Hurley is opening up about why she didn't appear in the beloved franchise's third film.
"When I was offered it, I said to them—and they were the first people who knew, aside from my immediate family—I said, 'Guys, I'm pregnant.' And I was pregnant with my son," Hurley said during a recent appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
"I said, 'So, unless you shoot it literally next week, I don't think I can shoot it,'" she continued, before explaining that initially she was brushed off by the film's executives.
"(They told me) 'Oh, you'll be fine, you're so skinny,'" she explained. "I put on 63 pounds when I was pregnant. I was like: 'No, no, you don't understand. You really have to shoot really soon.' "
At the time, Hurley was pregnant with her now 21-year-old son, Damian. She explained that by the time producers were ready to start shooting the film, she was already showing.
"So it wasn't my fault," she jokingly insisted to host Andy Cohen. "It would be like Dr. Evil had impregnated me once I was away, so it couldn't work!"
Hurley played Austin Powers' love interest, Vanessa Kensington, in the 1997 movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and 1999's Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. In 2002, she was replaced by Beyoncé, who played Foxxy Cleopatra in the franchise's third film.
"I love Beyoncé. I love Austin Powers," Hurley continued, before reiterating that, again, "it just wasn't my fault" that she was not featured in the movie.
In a November 2022 interview with People, Hurley said she would absolutely be open to shooting a fourth Austin Powers film, but on one condition: It has to star the franchise's star, Mike Myers.
"(Myers) goes down as one of my favorite costars," she told the publication at the time. "A brilliant man, fabulously kind and gentle and of course one of the best comedians on Earth. Mike is a genius. It would be wonderful to do something with him again."
