The Unexpected Brendan Fraser

Q: Did you feel during the making of this film that you were the odd man out, as your character was?

A: I did feel that. All the others already had the jobs when I did my screen test. I didn't know if I was ever in their group.

Q: Did you pick up on the closeness between Damon and Affleck?

A: They were a team, and I admired their friendship. They'd known each other since they were little knee biters. In my life, every three or four years I was always moving to a new house and making a new set of friends, so I found it touching that they were really watching out for each other. I was standing on a chair making a complete ass of myself when they won their Oscar for Good Will Hunting, I was so happy for them.

Q: I heard that Damon and Affleck were considered for The Mummy.

A: Really? It makes sense. I heard Chris O'Donnell was too, and Matt McConaughey. Every time a film comes up, these lists come out.

Q: How well did you understand prejudice and snobbery in prep schools?

A: I had a taste of it from my formal education. I went to the American school in the Hague in Holland for three years when I was in elementary school. Then back to Seattle for some more schooling. Two different schools there. Then to boarding school in Toronto. Then back to the U.S. for college. I don't know if I saw prejudice, but there was a disparity between privilege and non-privilege. I was not allowed to go back to my senior year in Canada because we didn't have the money.

Q: Was prep school seductive?

A: Yeah, because I wanted the things it had to offer.

Q: Did you ever suffer through any hazing rituals?

A: I was pulled from my bed when I was 13 and thrown in the trunk of a car, then tied to playground equipment with a pillow case over my head. They ripped my pajama top off and tried to rip the bottom off but I kicked some guy in the head. Firecrackers were thrown at me. Horrible. The car took off and I realized that I was tied up by the local girl's school. When I got loose I ran back to the dormitory and, ah, the nice guys, they gave me the house tie. I got made.

Q: You attended college in Toronto and Seattle. What did you get out of it?

A: The boarding schools gave me a broad classical education based on the English public school system, strong in arts and humanities, and in math and the sciences. When I left, I knew I wasn't a mathematician or a scientist. I first started doing plays while I was in Upper Canada College. Later [after getting my degree in Seattle] I had a scholarship to go to Southern Methodist University but I came to Los Angeles instead.

Q: You were very focused when you came here, weren't you?

A: I came from a Teutonic work ethic. And I was an actor whether I was in Hollywood or not. Seattle was a highly artistic, culturally proficient place for artists. It's funny that when the whole boom happened with Seattle, I left.

Q: Were you glad to get out of the gloomy Seattle weather?

A: No. I'm a real overcast sky, emerald green forest, sweater, coffee kind of guy.

Q: Let's talk about the job that got you into the Screen Actors Guild. A film called Dogfight with River Phoenix. You had one line?

A: Yes, it was my first day on an actual film set. I met River Phoenix at the end of the night and he said, "I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to work with each other." That meant something to me. Later on, at the wrap party, some guy was doing the talk to River, belching all this crap at him, like, "Right man, I'll see you in L.A. We'll get together." River was being agreeable, but after the guy walked away he said, "I don't even know who that guy was." I thought, "Man, get a good look, Brendan."

Q: Let's talk about some of the movies you went on to do. You were the lead singer of the rock band in Airheads--was that ever a personal fantasy of yours?

A: Only in the shower.

Q: Adam Sandier was in Airheads--did you sense he was going to be a star?

A: [Laughing] Actually, yes. Oh yeah. Adam was the heart of that movie.

Q: What kind of diet did you go on to buff yourself up for George of the Jungle?

A: High-protein, low-carbohydrate. And I worked out five days a week, two or three hours a day.

Q: Did you do any of the stunts yourself?

A: If you count a monkey sticking his tongue in your ear as a stunt, then, yeah, I did stunts. If you saw my face, it was me.

Q: You gave a lot of credit to your stunt double, Joey Preston, for creating George, didn't you?

A: He was George. And he wasn't an idiot. He's an acrobat, and he's got an angel on his shoulder--he's indestructible. He's going to do my next film, Monkey Bone, too

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Q: You got to pitch to Keith Hernandez at Yankee Stadium when you did The Scout with Albert Brooks. Did you throw any strikes?

A: Yeah. I got it in the strike zone. But they were nice juicy balls that he could have knocked all over. I was the only working Yankee that year, because of the baseball strike.

Q: What was your initial impression of Christopher Walken when he played your father in Blast From the Past?

A: He seemed very cryptic, but beneath it, he had a wry sense of humor. At the reading when I met him, he was eating a bowl of jalapeno peppers as if they were lozenges. [Laughs] And I thought: that's my dad! I'd loved him from The Dead Zone, that was a favorite film of mine. He's an entertainer of the highest order.

Q: Did you notice how compulsive he is?

A: He had a ritual--he'd suck lemons before he had to speak a mouthful of dialogue. So there were little chewed-up lemon wedges hidden all over the set, in his pockets, in his bathroom. And he ate a lot of garlic, too. I think he's based on his taste senses.

Q: What was Alicia Silverstone like?

A: She has an uncanny ability, which I envy, to get to the point. She's like a doweling stick in that way. Sometimes I'd just start talking about things on my mind in her presence and she'd hand me the answer like it was a piece of popcorn. And she has an ability, almost in the same way Ian has, to listen very well. She takes the information in and you can see the changes happen behind her eyes. She has big green eyes that are pretty to look at.

Q: Daily Variety wrote of you: "Fraser has played lovable naїfs so many times by now he pretty much owns the patent."

A: Wow, cool. I guess there's something I know how to do. I don't know if I agree with that, because I always thought that I was making diverse choices. If I own that patent, maybe it's time to apply for a new patent.

Q: Alek Keshishian, who directed you in With Honors, said you're an egoless actor. Is there such a thing?

A: No. I think he was expecting his actors to throw temper tantrums if they didn't get their way, but that's because the film he did before With Honors was Madonna's Truth or Dare.

Q: Parker Posey described you as a little kid in a man's body.

A: I accept that from Parker. She's like a tiny little bird, with a crisp intelligence. Sometimes dour, like a Degas etching--world-weary.

Q: Sherry Lansing said you combine incredible looks and sexiness and vulnerability with serious talent. How do you keep such praise from going to your head?

A: You can siphon the benefit. It's going to make you feel good and confident and that's what you need to be at your best when you're acting in films.

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