Brendan Fraser Says He Felt Like He Deserved To Be Hurt
Brendan Fraser says that when he endured injuries on the sets of action films, he felt it was in part due to feeling he deserved to be hurt.
Last year was a true Renaissance for Brendan Fraser’s career and 2023 looks to be even better. But that doesn’t mean Fraser hasn’t faced obstacles to get to this point, including a sense of self-loathing in the early days of his career. Deadline reported on an interview Fraser did with The Telegraph, where he talked about the physical pain he endured shooting his action-heavy films, admitting “I think on some level I felt I deserved [a beating] and wanted to be the one who got in the first punch.”
Brendan Fraser entered the halls of Hollywood royalty with his run of blockbusters from the late 90s to the early 2000s. Films like George of the Jungle and The Mummy franchise positioned Fraser as a reliable action star and Hollywood hunk. Fraser’s career would slow down a bit after his blockbuster phase but started picking up steam once he started taking on nuanced, dramatic roles.
While many will have fond memories of Brendan Fraser’s action-movie era (the Mummy movies still hold up), he got to start showing off his real acting talent by taking these more dramatic roles. Most recently, he got to really dive into a dramatic performance with Darren Aronfsky’s The Whale. The Whale follows Fraser as someone struggling with obesity, who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Sadie Sink).
The Whale was one of the best performances of Brendan Fraser’s career, and it was no surprise when he was announced as a nominee for Best Actor at the upcoming Academy Awards. This is his first Best Actor nomination, and it probably won’t be his last. To take home the award, he’ll have to beat out Colin Farrell for Banshees of Inisherin, Bill Nighy for Living, Paul Mescal for Aftersun, and Austin Butler for Elvis.
Brendan Fraser is an easy favorite to win the award for Best Actor too, as Vegas Insider gives him the best odds at -140. Butler has the second-best odds to win with Farrell in third. According to the Vegas odds, Nighy and Mescal are the long shots.
Brendan Fraser has certainly put in the work and years to earn his Best Actor win, so we’ll just have to wait and see how awards season pans out for him. Austin Butler took home the Golden Globe win for Best Actor, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Academy will lean the same way. In the meantime, The Whale is still playing in theaters if you want to see Fraser’s performance for yourself and see if it’s Oscar-worthy.
Brendan Fraser also has some other prestigious projects lined up for the coming years. One of the most anticipated is Martin Scorcese’s next directorial effort Killers of the Flower Moon, which is based on the true story told in David Grann’s novel of the same name. The film follows the 1920s investigation by the FBI into the mysterious murders of Osage tribe members and also stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Cara Jade Myers, Janae Collins, Jillian Dion, William Belleau, Louis Cancelmi, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, and more.
