Brendan Fraser Recalls Multiple Injuries While Filming Mummy Sequel, "It Caught Up With Me"

By Spencer Perry

While we're living in the Fraser-sance, actor Brendan Fraser has been a beloved figure in Hollywood for decades. Beyond appearances in George of the Jungle, Bedazzled, and Blast from the Past, his best known role is probably as Rick O'Connell in The Mummy trilogy. Speaking with GQ in one of their trademark "Breaks Down Most Iconic Characters" videos, Fraser opened up about his time leading the action-adventure franchise, specifically talking about his time making the third film, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and how the injuries he sustained on the film changed his outlook forever.

"So first of all, look, it's an action movie. Rob Cohen was directing this one, Steve Summers was executive producing it, so it had a different spirit, a different character," Fraser recalled. "It was a lot of fighting, a lot of fall down, go boom. I had been up until that point always playing every role that I had as kinetically as possible, as physically as possible as engaged in what the action of the character was to get my meaning and my point across. What can I say, it caught up with me."

He continued, "I had a few injuries that became another injury. Like they said I was playing hurt, you know? So I would wrap up and tape, you do the things you gotta do to get through with it and we all do that and I'm happy to, but it meant that I needed to start thinking about how to work smart instead of work hard. Around the time I made that movie it was sort of a fundamental shift in my approach. And now when it comes to doing this stuff I just look at the young guys and go 'You're gonna be great in the shot, man'"

Despite all of this talk about being injured on the last movie, which was released over 14 years ago, Fraser remains interested in a potential return to the series. When asked in the video about it, his enthusiasm was palpable, replying: "Absolutely. Got a script?"

In a time when Legacy Sequels are all the rage, and Tom Cruise's reboot of The Mummy was an abysmal failure (though it made over $400 million worldwide), the potential for a Mummy 4 with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz coming back would almost be a guaranteed hit. Universal Pictures should at least think about it.

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