Most people today can barely remember the fact that there was a third Mummy movie in 2008, after the enjoyable adventure movie series’ entries in 1999 and 2001. Rachel Weisz – perhaps wisely – did not return for the third installment, but it still somehow made over $400 million. Someone who has fairly dark memories of that movie is star Brendan Fraser himself – who was in a lot of pain due to injuries sustained in previous action-adventure movies such as George of the Jungle.
“I got a little banged up from years of doing my own stunts and needed a surgical fix on the spine and the hinges,” he told The Telegraph (via Deaadline). “That took a lot out of me. I knew I would get better, but it took a long time.”
Fraser says that while working on The Mummy 3, he would wake up and put himself “together like a gladiator with muscle tape and ice packs, strapping on this Transformer-like exoskeleton just to get through the scene.” He continued; “there was self-loathing. I think on some level I felt I deserved [a beating] and wanted to be the one who got in the first punch.”
“I’m older now; I don’t look the way I did in those days [in the late 1990s], and I don’t necessarily want to,” Fraser continued. “But I’ve made peace with who I am now. And I’m glad that the work I can do is based in an emotional reality that’s not my own life but is one that I can strongly identify with.”
Fraser’s physicality has come up a lot in recent months, due to him playing a 600 pound man in The Whale, for which he has been nominated for best Lead Actor at the Oscars. In the film he wears a fat suit, but says he identifies with the character.
While we reach the tail-end of awards season, check out our guide to the best drama movies.