Mike Myers has long been considered collateral damage of Kanye West's infamous "George Bush doesn't care about black people" speech, his face a mix of terror and exasperation as the rapper seethes over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. But in a new interview with GQ, Myers says that he was "proud" to be standing next to Kanye.

In fact, Myers iterates that he believes it takes away from Kanye's core message to focus on his face, as opposed to—as he puts it—someone speaking truth to power.

I don't think so either. But the question itself is a little beside the point of what actually went down in New Orleans. For me it isn't about the look of embarrassment on my face, it is truly about the injustice that was happening in New Orleans. I don't mind answering the question but the emphasis of it being that I'm the guy next to the guy who spoke a truth. I assume that George Bush does care about black people—I mean I don't know him, I'm going to make that assumption—but I can definitively say that it appeared to me watching television that had that been white people, the government would have been there faster. And so to me that's really the point—the look on my face is, to me, almost insulting to the true essence of what went down in New Orleans. You know, there's a great line by the great Northern English poet Elvis Costello, as sung by Nick Lowe: "What's so funny 'bout peace love and understanding?" [Myers seems both dubious and slightly irked when I tell him that it was the other way round—the song was written by Nick Lowe but made famous by Costello.] The point being that. What is so funny about peace, love, and understanding? To have the emphasis on the look on my face versus the fact that somebody spoke truth to power at a time when somebody needed to speak? I'm very proud to have been next to him. Do you know what I mean?

Myers seems almost to accept his position in history as being assigned by the cosmos.

I'm not downplaying its remarkableness. I mean it is what it is, dude. You know, I'm having a remarkable experience on this planet, a truly extraordinary experience. Given where I'm from, I am so grateful for the extraordinariness of it. I'm having an extraordinary experience on the planet.

GQ's Chris Heath does not specify if Myers immediately ripped a bong after that statement.