It was a cast that served as many people’s bisexual awakening – because who could choose between Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz?
The Mummy (1999) and its two sequels landed Fraser firmly on the A-List, and now he’s back from his Hollywood hiatus, the real-life Rick O’Connell says he’s open to revisiting the franchise.
“I don’t know how it would work,” he admitted to Variety in October 2022. “But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.”
Director Stephen Sommers told the publication that he cast Fraser in his iconic role because he possessed a specific skillset.
”He could throw a punch and take a punch and he had a great sense of humour,” Sommers told the publication. “You really like the guy. He never comes across as cocky or arrogant.”
Sommers said Fraser did many of his own stunts – as many as he possibly could – and even though he injured his knee at one point, Fraser powered through it to complete the movie.
”He was game for anything we threw at him,” Sommers said.
In 2017, Fraser was not invited to be a part of Universal’s flop of a reboot, instead casting Tom Cruise in the lead role – and Fraser had some thoughts on why Cruise’s version didn’t see much box office success.
”It is hard to make that movie,” Fraser said. “The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn’t see in that film, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. The Mummy should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary.”
Fraser said he knows how “difficult it is to pull it off” as he “tried to do it three times” – and we’re hoping for a fourth.
As we look ahead at what could be, it’s time to reflect on what was. Read on to see what the original cast of The Mummy is up to now – and learn how Fraser’s insistence on doing his own stunts resulted in a near-death experience.
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