The 2008 movie that almost broke Brendan Fraser: “I was put together with tape and ice”
Stunt people exist for a reason, and unless you’re Tom Cruise, it’s the smarter and safer option to leave the more dangerous side of acting to the professionals, a lesson Brendan Fraser learned the hard way.
While he wasn’t regarded as an out-and-out action hero during his 1990s and 2000s heyday, at least, not in the same sense as Cruise, Will Smith, Bruce Willis, and Keanu Reeves, who all became virtually synonymous with the genre, Fraser always wanted to make sure the audience knew it was him.
He wouldn’t do everything because he’s not an idiot, but if there was any rough and tumble, brawling, running, jumping, or soaring through the air required, he’d volunteer himself. As admirable as it was for the star to put the viewers and their immersion first, it didn’t do his long-term health any favours.
Things reached a head in 2008, when the arduous process of making three big-budget adventure flicks back-to-back pushed Fraser to breaking point. Between April 2006 and November 2007, he shot Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and Inkheart in quick succession, all of which required no shortage of derring-do and intense stunt work.
Reprising his career-defining role of Rick O’Connell for the third time wasn’t a happy experience for anyone. For Fraser, he admitted the third Mummy relocated the action to China to capitalise on the nation’s burgeoning cinema market, Rachel Weisz refused to return, and the film itself was shite.
Still, phoning it in or taking it easy never crossed his mind, leaving the Academy Award winner to realise that he’d pushed himself too far. “I believe I probably was trying too hard, in a way that’s destructive,” he acknowledged, with Tomb of the Dragon Emperor the agonising straw that broke the camel’s back.
“By the time I did the third Mummy picture in China, I was put together with tape and ice,” he confessed. “Like, really nerdy and fetishy about ice packs. Screw-cap ice packs and downhill mountain biking pads, because they’re small and light and they can fit under your clothes. I was building an exoskeleton for myself daily.”
Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, destroying his body for a terrible movie that underperformed at the box office and was slated by critics and audiences alike did him no favours. In the years that followed, Fraser underwent at least two spinal surgeries, a partial knee replacement, and a spinal compression repair, with the years of wear and tear taking their toll.
There’s another Mummy looming over the horizon that’ll reunite Fraser and Weisz for the first time in over 25 years, but based on his experience and the fact he’s rapidly closing in on turning 60 years old, don’t expect him to shoulder the action hero burden on his lonesome.
