Who was the original voice actor cast as Shrek before Mike Myers took the role?

Chris Farley was the original voice actor cast as Shrek before Mike Myers took the role.

Farley recorded much of the dialogue for the project before his death in December 1997. DreamWorks later recast the part, and Mike Myers supplied the voice that appears in the finished film.

Myers initially recorded Shrek with his natural Canadian accent. He then asked to redo the dialogue using a Scottish accent, inspired in part by his mother and by Scottish comic characters. The change required extensive rerecording but became one of the character’s defining traits.

The finished Shrek therefore differs substantially from the version planned around Farley. Early footage and descriptions of Farley’s performance have made the casting history one of the best-known behind-the-scenes stories in the franchise.