Brendan Fraser is currently on a promotional tour and awards campaign for his upcoming drama movie The Whale. As part of this, he’s been speaking to GQ about some of his iconic characters, including Encino Man and George of the Jungle. But his most famous movie (or movie series) has to be adventure movie The Mummy. Fraser describes some of the mayhem on set, and it sure sounds like a fun, but dangerous time!
“We rode our own camels, we wielded our weapons, we fought one another. We ran around in the heat of the desert in Morocco. It was thrilling. It had a little bit of danger, some risk-taking to it also. It felt like; ‘well what will happen today? will we survive?'”
“One of the favourite directions that Stephen Sommers would give us was; ‘ready – and don’t suck – action!’ through a bullhorn. Things would blow up, stuff would fall down, and there would be animals on fire, and Arnold. Stephen would say; ‘ok we got it! let’s do it again!’ Stephen just loves making movies. He loved his job and his enthusiasm was infectious. I loved making that movie.”
The Mummy was released in 1999, with sequels following in 2001 and 2008. They grossed $1.25 billion between them. The first Mummy was a moderate critical success, but the sequels were strongly criticized. The CGI used for Dwayne Johnson’s Scorpion King has long been the subject of derision. However, the trilogy (and the first film in particular) has seen a resurgence of love on social media in recent years.
Fans discovering or rediscovering The Mummy has been part of the reason that there’s been such a groundswell of support for Brendan Fraser’s ‘comeback.’ He is hotly tipped for the Best Actor Oscar in 2o23.
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