Mike Myers and Jessica Alba team up in comedy

It’s been six years since Mike Myers penned “Austin Powers in Goldmember,” his last scripted film. While the actor hasn’t been absent at the movie theater — he’s filmed two sequels to “Shrek” during that time — audiences have been waiting to see what he would come up with next.

This question is answered in the new film “The Love Guru,” which opens June 20. The film blends two of Myers’ passions — Eastern philosophy and hockey. He plays Pitka, a trained guru who is tasked to assist a star hockey player whose career and life have fallen apart after his wife leaves him.

For Myers, combining the disparate elements was a no-brainer.

“There is a lot of spirituality in comedy and I wanted to combine the two,” he said. “Those are two of my big passions in life.”

Myers said his interest in Eastern philosophy came after the death of his father in 1991. In an attempt to come to terms with the event, he went on what he described as a “spiritual quest” where he was exposed to the ideas of gurus such as Deepak Chopra and Gary Zukav.

Hockey, on the other hand, is a life-long obsession.

“I’m Canadian, so I’ve really had a choice about loving hockey,” he said. “You’re kind of issued it with your passport.”

The movie also stars Jessica Alba as the team’s owner who must deal with both her star player’s slump as well as Myers’ Pitka.

The chance to do comedy had a strong appeal for the actress.

“I wanted to do comedy, just no one would give me a shot at it,” Alba said. “Everyone thought I was too tough or playing superheroes.”

The actress cites her turn in the comedy “Good Luck Chuck” with helping to break those suppositions.

“‘Good Luck Chuck’ was kind of my shot of showing people I could do it, and thank God people enjoyed it because (comedy is) my favorite thing in the world to do,” she said.

Even with the actress’ experience working in comedy, working on “The Love Guru” was a challenge because of her costar.

“It’s much more intimidating with someone like Mike Myers that’s coined basically every phrase of my life,” Alba said.

While the script for “The Love Guru” is fairly new, the character of Pitka is not.

“I workshopped this character in New York in little theaters unannounced,” Myers said. “I would have sutras, which are teachings, as if I actually was this dude and never, ever say that it was me.”

The movie was created when Paramount Pictures came to the actor looking for a new film.

“I showed them a tape of the sutra, and they said they’d love to make a movie of that,” Myers said.

Myers has established his credentials as an actor, but it’s his writing that he hopes has the most lasting effect.

“When I’m 80, I want to look back and I want to know that I made stuff that made people laugh,” he said. “The greatest joy I know is to write something and have a room full of people laugh at it.”