After years out of the spotlight, Brendan Fraser is not only back, but he’s back in a big way. Fraser is getting rave reviews and standing ovations for his role in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, and one of the people who is glad to see Fraser getting his due is Dwayne Johnson, who credits Fraser with helping him launch his own career in Hollywood.
Today Dwayne Johnson is the biggest movie star in the world but 20 years ago he was only the biggest star in professional wrestling, trying to make his name in movies. His big break came in The Mummy Returns, which starred Brendan Fraser, and in a recent Twitter post The Rock says Fraser supported his joining the Mummy franchise, which is what started it all for him.
Man this makes me so happy to see this beautiful ovation for Brendan. He supported me coming into his Mummy Returns franchise for my first ever role, which kicked off my Hollywood career. Rooting for all your success brother and congrats to my bud Darren Aronofsky. #TheWhale 👏🏾 https://t.co/SNBLPHHmEZSeptember 4, 2022
Dwayne Johnson’s role in The Mummy Returns is small but famous for a number of reasons. And not all of them great. Johnson plays The Scorpion King, and is only seen, in a human form, in a short prologue at the beginning of the film. The character returns at the end for a big final battle, which includes some epically terrible CGI.
While The Rock’s role is small, it clearly impressed a lot of people. It earned a spinoff movie of its own, Dwayne Johnson’s first starring role in a franchise, and the man would never look back. It’s likely Dwayne Johnson would have found another route to stardom had he never appeared in The Mummy Returns, but he might not be in quite the same place he is today had it not started there.
Brendan Fraser has had a very different path through Hollywood in the last couple of decades. Four years ago Fraser accused a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association of groping him back in 2003, and it’s difficult to not notice that the incident coincided with seeing his career as a major Hollywood leading man begin to slow. The man in question, Phil Berk, was removed by the HFPA in 2021 for a separate incident.
Brendan Fraser also had to deal with some health issues which kept him out of action for some time. While Fraser was never entirely out of work, he worked in smaller roles and on smaller films before landing one of the roles in HBO Max’s Doom Patrol.
Now, however, with Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, Fraser is receiving some of the best notices of his entire career. Seeing him again has apparently reminded fans from his Mummy days how much they loved the actor, and there are a lot of people rooting for Fraser’s success. The Rock is just the most famous among them.
