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Brendan Fraser ruled the box office in the latter part of the ’90s and early 2000s with hits such as George of the Jungle, Bedazzled, and two of the best action movies of all time, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. But in the 2010s, Fraser wasn’t being offered the same types of leading roles, and his star seemed to fade. Well, he’s finally back and starring in a role that appears to be career-defining; Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. Fraser’s performance has been getting a lot of praise, including an emotional six-minute standing ovation at the film’s Venice Film Festival screening. Following the screening, fellow Mummy alum Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson retweeted a video captured at the festival while sharing sweet memories from the Mummy set. And now, Fraser is sharing his own behind-the-scenes memories.
While catching up with Variety, the actor responded to a quote from Dwayne Johnson, who said he wants to see Fraser win an Academy Award for his performance in The Whale. The Airheads actor said it was nice of Johnson to join fans in rooting for his Hollywood comeback before diving into a hilarious story about the behind-the-scenes making of The Mummy Returns. According to Fraser, though he and Johnson’s character share screen time in the 2001 action adventure hit, the two actors had never met until a reception:
I thought that was really nice of him. The first time I met him was at the reception after The Mummy Returns. We hadn’t met in person before then, actually, although we were fighting onscreen. But every time I worked with him, he was just a piece of tape on a stick. So it was nice to go, ‘Hey, man. How are ya? We finally meet!’… I could take him. I could take him — he’s just a piece of tape on a stick!
I think we can all agree Brendan Fraser could take The Rock. Well, okay, maybe not. But he definitely could take that piece of tape on a stick! But let us be honest, he is far too nice and would probably let the tape win.
Dwayne Johnson’s Mummy character, the Scorpion King, was infamously depicted as a full CGI character in the third act of the film. It’s commonly agreed upon as one of the worst special effects committed to screen, which explains why he and his co-star never met until after the movie had wrapped production. Though the two never spent time in front of the camera together, it’s terrific to see the camaraderie they can still share.
It’s been debated as to whether Brendan Fraser’s limited presence on the silver screen over the past decade was of his choosing. He previously came forward with a sexual harassment allegation against Philip Berk, a ex-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, claiming that Berk groped him at an event in 2003. Berk remained part of the HFPA until being expelled by the group in 2021 after his emails to fellow members, suggesting Black Lives Matter is a “racist hate movement,” were revealed. Despite the conflict, Fraser has shot down claims that he was blacklisted
It’s clear that the time for Brendan Fraser’s triumph return to Hollywood is here, and like all his other fans, I’m rooting for the actor. We’ll see if the actor does win the golden statue and gets to give that speech Dwayne Johnson is hoping for.
You can catch The Whale when it hits theaters on December 9. To learn about movies that are headed your in the coming months, you can look at CinemaBlend’s 2022 movie release schedule.