"Brendan Fraser"
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Well, I... Can I just... I'm so sorry. Oh my God, this is a classic... Can I... No, I'm... Can I just... Let me just... Okay. Okay. Oh, okay. Can I... Can I... Okay. All I'm trying to say... So I'm going to say... Just one minute. Just one minute. Can I... One second. Can I say one word? Can I get one... All I'm saying... Can I say one word? Can I get... Listen to me. All I'm saying... Do you want to listen to me? Do you want to listen to me? All I'm saying... It's an all new Smart List. Smart. Smart.

Smart. Smart.

Guys, what do they call that, like a red-letter day or date? What is it called? Like when it's a good thing happened this morning? Okay, go ahead. Yeah, what does that mean, red-letter day? Sean, first of all... Who's got a Wi-Fi signal? Yeah. Somebody can Google that? Sean, what are you thinking? Why is this a great day? What's going on? Well, because Ricky, who's sitting right next to me, his scab, remember that huge... What's it called?

tumor or thing that he had. Oh, this is... Welcome back to Remembering Scabs. I'm your host. And for the listener, Ricky is your best friend, your buddy. Yeah. Your buddy's got a terrible case of herpes constantly, right? Yeah.

No, he had that big, what's it called? Like tumor, like benign tumor. Anyway, so he got it gouged out. It was massive. And now it's scabbed and the scabs started falling off. And that's when my mouth starts to water. Like, you ever watch those videos with the earwax and stuff? Oh, yeah. No, no, we don't watch any videos about earwax. Do you? Yeah. Or like the doctor, the pimple popper thing? Yeah, pimple popper, yeah. I know, it's incredible.

I think it's like, it's so satisfying. Oh, that's a whole thing. Have you not seen those, Jay? What are you talking about? There's a show. Doesn't she have a show on, like, Learning Channel or something called Dr. Pimple Popper? Dr. Pimple Popper. It's this dermatologist and she goes and she has people who have, like, extreme, um, uh, like, like cysts. Growth and acne and cysts and shit and she, like, gets rid of them and extracts them. It's,

Yeah, yeah. It's so great. Thanks. Sorry, listener. We're going to be a bit. Where is this? On the television set. On the Learning Channel. Yeah. She has a whole thing. And if you look online, somebody told me about it. This is a television show with commercials and stuff. Oh, yeah. Well, you can YouTube. You can YouTube it. You would be blown away at the millions of views that they get. I mean... And the draw is just come and watch online.

all the pus come out. That's why you're tuning in. I think so. That's right. I think that it's a whole community of people who just fucking are obsessed with it. I love that. And also, but the earwax, like when people go in and get like mounds of earwax out of somebody's ear. Stop talking to me like I know what you're talking about. Well, just like...

It's like when people talk about taking freeways in certain places and they're like, and then we were on the 605, you know, when it goes into them, like, no, I don't, man. I don't fucking know where that is. So, Sean, there is a common thing where earwax, can you show about that to me? No, there's not a show, but you can like YouTube videos of like people going in and taking earwax out, like doctors and stuff.

Have you ever had, I had to have some removed. I went to the doctor once, this is 10 years ago, and they go, oh, you should go downstairs and see ENT. You've got quite a lot of buildup in your ear. True story. Not shocking, by the way. And I go in, how do you mean? Well, just, just, listener, if you could see Will right now, I mean, he's just, no one needs to see him before noon on any day. Listen, I keep it very tight, as you know. And so I go in there and they go, yeah, and the guy takes it out.

I kept it in a jar. No way. I need to see that. Do you still have it? Oh, God. Someone woke up this little kitty cat. I sold it. What's that, Sean? You want to see that? Do you have the tumor from your herpetic friend? No, but I did. I had all... Did I use that right? Yeah, that is right, actually. You did. Oh.

But yeah, as it fell off, my mouth started watering. I was like, oh, and then I picked some of it off. This is why you love dumplings from Chin Chin, right? That's exactly right. You just cut it open and it oozes out. Don't draw a comparison with the food. It's sort of like a little pod with meat on the inside of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just kind of open and watch it all.

I feel bad for our guests. They've had to listen to potentially our most disgusting intro to the show ever. Better not be a classy person. Well, put it this way. I feel good about it because I feel like this person and I, we share this in common in that we both have Canadian origins. Oh, here we go. I don't think that he grew up in Canada, but I know that he is a card-carrying Canadian. His parents are Canadian.

So I think that he's probably got a pretty loose sense of humor about stuff like that and can be pretty easygoing, you know, how we are up there. Oh, sure. Yeah, so you can talk about the gross stuff, and we're like, well, fuck, that's pretty gross there, bud, but all right, you know, not going to get too bogged down by it. But this guy's had, he's lived here and he's had so much success here, and he started making films,

You know, it's funny, he had two films. His first two films opened within, I think, within maybe the same year, over 30 years ago. One was very much a sort of a comedy. The other one was much more dramatic. The dramatic film that he was in launched the careers of many young men, including Matt Damon, Chris O'Donnell, Ben Affleck, had a lot of young guns in this film. He then went on to make...

Just film after film after film. He was in huge blockbuster franchise films. He was in really cool, interesting indie films. And then for a moment it felt like, it almost felt like we weren't seeing him in as many films for a minute. We're going to get into that part of his life. We sure will. But then he came back bigger than ever.

Wait, if this is who I think it is. Some would say as big as a whale, guys, it's none other than Brendan Fraser. No way! Good Lord! Hi, guys. Hi. Brendan Fraser! What an honor. What a pleasure. You're a busy man right now, huh? Yes, but not too busy. You're up early doing a podcast with us. Nothing could be busier. Absolutely.

Happy to drop in. Are you in L.A. right now? No, no, I'm in New York. I live in upstate New York. Oh, so it's not so early. No, no. Brendan Fraser joining us from upstate New York. Dude, what an honor and pleasure to meet you. And it just... I got to say, it's one of those great stories because there aren't often a lot of... There are a lot of feel-bad stories around, and you got to kind of look for the feel-good stories, and yours certainly is a feel-good story in watching you kind of...

all of a sudden just, I'm sure, and you can tell us, everybody's like, wow, even me saying, oh, you've had this sort of resurgence or this comeback, and you're kind of, tell me what that experience is like, because do you feel like, hey, motherfuckers, I've been here the whole time? Well, I guess that's the epistolistic question. Did I leave or did it leave me? I just only know is I'm here now, and I'm happy to be.

And you probably were working. I mean, I've gone through a period that was less active than periods before or periods after. But all that was was that, well, I was a working actor. I was still paying my bills. I just wasn't in vehicles that got a whole lot of notoriety. And I was just lucky that I was in some before and in some afterwards, but always kind of working. Was that what the sort of perceived value was?

I, I've always kept busy. That's for sure. I mean, I, I, I don't think there was a year when I didn't have something. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's just the stuff was so huge before and huge after. Yeah. There was a real proliferation when I came out of the gate pretty early and, um,

I think I was even in competition with myself on some weekends, you know, in the Genius of Release dates. Wow. Yeah. Where's that guy? Right. Oh, it's me. Oh, so busy. So big. How was that? Did you enjoy that level of...

busyness and notoriety and and like the another version of brendan that was someone other than who you had grown up being you know that like the public's version i you know i i kind i guess i kind of had blinders on i didn't really um pay that much attention to the result of what i was doing yeah so much as i was doing what i was doing to keep busy i'm i guess the the answer is um

I was never a big party guy. I never went out. I stayed away from, you know, glitzy events and that kind of thing. Yeah. Because I had to be at work in the morning, and on top of that, I'm also very, very bored. You would have seen Jason in a lot of those glitzy events had you gone. Yeah, it would have been a lot of high fives coming from me. Oh, damn.

So you didn't miss much anyway, Brendan. I don't think I did either, but I was too busy trying to keep my head in the game for whatever I was up to. I should have hung out with you. Yeah, I once ran into you, Brendan, like, is that a...

I don't know, I think it was an event honoring Steve Martin maybe? -Or-- -Oh. I can't remember where it was. It was an event and I just couldn't believe I was meeting you. I was like, "Oh my God, it's Brendan Fraser." -And you were the nicest-- -Was it Saturday Night Live? No, no, it was in town here in Los Angeles. And you were just so nice. And we just hung out briefly for two seconds backstage chatting. He's got no memory of this. Yeah, clearly. -He's got a mark on him, Sean. -Jesus. I didn't make--

Quite an impact, as you did on me. I should tell you also, I was dropped on my head a lot in my career. Sure. Wow. Had you shown up with that tumor in a jar, Sean, you wouldn't have forgotten that. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that really is. So, Brendan, let's go way back a little bit. So, as I mentioned, what's your connection to Canada? Your parents are Canadian. Did you spend any time there? Did you grow up there at all? I was born in the U.S., so I'm a Canadian born abroad. Yeah. Dual heritage.

But Canada definitely claims me as local boy done good. Which part of Canada? Ottawa, Ontario, Toronto, my family.

I have family in Vancouver, in BC. Oh, all over the place. My father hails from the Maritimes, and my mom was a cowgirl in Saskatchewan. No way. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. A Canadian cowboy. Wait a second. Hang on one second. Your dad's from the Maritimes. What part of the Maritimes do you know exactly? CBI in Nova Scotia. Oh, from Nova Scotia. Wait till Eli hears about this. Our buddy Eli, who, you know, right, he just stopped combing somebody's hair. Yeah.

mid-brush with his Vujardé. Why, is that where he's from? He's from Halifax, Nova Scotia. When he finds out that Brendan's dad is from Nova Scotia, he's going to lose it. You know, they'll say, is that right? Oh, is that righty? Fuck, you know what? I think I know who he's got. Who's your father's father? Yeah, who is he? Oh, yeah. Because everyone knows everyone. Yeah, I've seen him down there. He works at the post office with the other guy who works at the post office. Yeah, yeah.

So isn't maritime like a nautical term?

Nice. The islands, yeah. And the town's called Maritime? No, the area's called the Maritimes. No, it's not M-A-R-Y, second word, T-R-I-M-E. It's not Maritime. Oh, now it's Maritime. During the week, I work for my boss, but come Friday, it's Maritime. That's M-E-R-R-Y. Christmas, that's Maritime. So...

Sean, for fuck's sake. I apologize, Brendan. Sean, you know that your college just lost their accreditation. You know that, right?

They've just been stripped of everything. So, Brendan. So, Brendan, you're up there in Canada. You're freezing your nards off and you're thinking, I want to be on stage. You move down to the States and you go to high school in the States, yes? I feel like you've done a bunch of research. I have. My father's work was with Tourism Canada, which is a defunct branch of the government now, wherein his job was basically to...

sell canada so they're yeah sounds like spy work to me go ahead i know i could be a perfect cover you put a half a beer in him i bet you get a lot of stories i tried that i seriously dude i did i tried he didn't say anything about it you know he's very very boring that way um we traveled every three four years so there's many postings so that's why they lived in the united states when i was born and they moved around parts of canada too so ottawa i

in the 70s he was posted in Holland we lived there for four years and then um Seattle Washington think back did you ever hear sirens consistently the last sound you heard before you left places yeah think back because if you heard sirens were you guys living in the middle of the night a lot yeah

We'll sidebar this. I was just going to say a lot of BC and Holland. There's also a real weed trail here, Brendan, that I don't think there is. Good, Will. Good. We're going to crack this, Brendan. Start it early. So then, okay, so you're moving all around and you decide and you're like, you're drawn to...

Acting to theater to what was that first engagement? I was going to high school in Toronto at Upper Canada College, and I wasn't a very good student at all. You were at UCC? Correct, yeah. Guilty. Wow. Did you go to the same high school as, like...

Eric McCormick and Mike Myers and all those people? No. I don't know that. Okay. Sean. I think they went to, I want to say North Toronto? I can't remember. I don't know. I don't know. Sorry, keep going. That was the 80s. That was me doing school. I was a bad student and I was, I found home. Wait, Brendan, how old a gentleman are you? I'm 54. Okay, so we're around the same age. Yeah, how did you guys not bump into each other?

I'm asking a question now, but I've never been this famous and unsalaried at the same time, so a lot doesn't make sense to me. Well, speaking of which, how many, I'm going to guess right now, you're dealing with

You got a bunch of scripts that have been sent your way and you've read. I bet you there's two or three right now. Yeah. You're looking at two or three things right now that are like, what? I have a chance to do these things right now. But they conflict. And I got to pick one. Like, are we in that moment right now?

No, I've lived that before. I've felt I've had that. Come on, buddy. Tuck in. Buckle up. Which is the best choice to make and who will you disappoint if you don't do the following? Can you tell us what that was? Like, is there one that you can share now? Oh, gosh.

It was years ago. It was years ago when I've been in that sort of dynamic of the industry. But right now, no, it's quiet. Right now, I don't have a job. Yeah, you know what they say about the quiet? It's right before the storm. That's right. He's right, Jason. Buckle up. You've got a good set of reading glasses. Yep, fuel up.

Get a lot of sleep right now while you can. Or I'll read them to you. I can read the script to you. There you go. You got your fuel. It says Guinness on it. I'm hoping it's coffee. It's a Guinness coffee cup. I've never seen that. I know. I like that. It's Earl Grey tea. Earl Grey tea. Okay. Canadian. So you decide you're going to be an actor and you what? You go, I'm going to go to L.A. or I'm going to go to New York. What do you do?

Well, yeah, that was in Toronto. Did that. My family lived in Seattle. Seattle? Seattle. Yes, in the Northwest. Yeah.

I didn't make it back for grade 13 because I didn't have the grades and my father didn't have the money. So they said, no, honey. And so I had to make my decision as a kid of, I don't know, 17 years of age at that time. And I knew that I felt like I belonged. I felt like I was in a community. You know, when you're doing a play, you have a tribe for a short while. You know the drill. Yeah.

I wanted to pursue that in a way. So I went and I got the last possible audition on the Labor Day weekend, like the Friday before this new semester started on the following Tuesday that year, 100 years ago, at Cornish College of the Arts. And...

I can't remember, but I auditioned and I didn't hear anything. And then on that Tuesday morning, I called to ask, hey. Did you guys like it? Man, what? And somebody did like one of these in the office. What's your name again?

Frazier. No, it's Frazier. Frazier. Yeah, you're in. Can you come now? Yeah. Nice. So I got accepted. Wow. And the next thing I knew, I was signing my life away in like Pell Grants and student loans. This is in Seattle, yeah. In Seattle. And I started training in a four-year program in a conservatory, you know, after school. I did that for four years. That was very good. Got a degree and...

was in an internship in a theater then called Intiman Theater. That was a wild summer.

the Russians showed up for the Goodwill Games, it was called. Oh, the Goodwill Games. The whole entire Soviet company from Moscow brought three sisters. And I mean everything. All the little babushkas and other sets and their laundry, everything. And descended on this theater. We had a wild summer. I was basically just a de facto taxi driver. They all wanted to know where to go and buy stuff. Medrugia, ja chuchu kubit videomagneteafonu.

Which is roughly translated, my friend, I'd like to buy a VCR. Okay. Right, sure. That's what I did that summer. And that ended, I had a great time and I needed to figure out, all right, well, here I am like 20 years old. And then straight down to LA? Well, I had a scholarship that I'd earned to do graduate study if I wanted to. And I did.

Maybe, but it was at SMU in Dallas. And the new semester wasn't going to start, so I needed to get there. So I left Seattle, drove down the coast, and I stopped in Hollywood in California with the sort of ignorant idea that I would make a little cash in this pilot season thing or whatever that was before I went to grad school the following semester. Yeah.

That never happened. I met casting directors and...

The ball started. I got an agent, and I went to work, fortunately, pretty quickly. Wow. Never made it to SMU. Never made it to SMU. I wrote him a letter. Did you have friends here? Did you have somebody you knew? Did you have a place to land? Yeah, no, I had a friend from college whose mother had an apartment building. We shared a room in the valley by the airport. But I had a landing place. But other than that, no, I was just living on my car. Jason uses an airport in the valley all the time. Yeah.

Somebody said L-E-X to him the other day, and he said, what's that? Laxative. I'm plenty regular. What the? Yeah. And we will be right back. And now back to the show. All right, so you're in L.A. totally on your own, basically, and starting from scratch, and one thing leads to another, like literally like...

Maybe a play, commercials, episodics, feature. Here we go. I got cast in a pilot for Castle Rock. That was Rob Reiner's company, right? Called My Old School from the producers of The Wonder Years. And it was about college kids. And it didn't get picked up, but that was fine because I needed the cash anyway. Sure.

I'd done some auditions. I went in and read for a movie called School Ties. Sure. Didn't get hired. They were doing a big drift net search for whoever their David was going to be. Then

Then I did get hired to go work with Martin Sheen in Pittsburgh on a jail movie about a guy who's wrongly accused and his father comes and breaks him out because that's really what Martin does really well, you know, fight the man. That was exciting. So I cut my teeth there. I worked in a real jail. That was exciting and interesting and a little bit scary at the same time. I got mistaken for a prisoner. Yeah.

Oh, no. Because I was wearing the same thing. That was scary. That sounds painful. Dax and I made that prison movie. Yes. You're going to prison. A great movie. Let's go to prison. Yeah, we shot it. Let's go to prison. No, you're right, though. It was originally called You Are Going to Prison. That's the version I read. Turned it down. Then you did it. That sounds about right. No. That sounds about right. And we went to Joliet. We also shot in real prison. Shepard and I did. And...

It's weird being in an actual prison. Let me just say, by the way, anybody in prison listening to this? By the way, if anybody listens to our podcast in prison. That's a good question. You think they've got Wi-Fi in prisons? They can't, right? Or maybe they do? Are you allowed to? I think different securities, like, you know, levels. Depends on what wing you're in? Yeah, I think so, right? Yeah.

I don't know. Listen, it makes sense. Guys, let's workshop this real quick. Brendan, what do you think? Do you think that they have Wi-Fi in prison? I think they have everything there. No, but I'm not talking about like mewling in the Wi-Fi, you know, but like literally like that's, well, yeah, you can have a TV, you can have Wi-Fi, and you can have... You think guys are mewling in routers up the rectum? Do you see routers come in all shapes and sizes now? Oh, guys. What...

Wait, what's mewling? What is mewling? What's mewling? Again, another sidebar for us. Okay. You know, when people bring stuff in. Are you keeping a list? You know, like when you're getting on a plane from Bogota and you swallow like 15 or 20 condoms filled with cocaine. Got it, got it. You know? Yeah.

That's called mewling. Anyway, guys, I've heard enough people already this morning. So, Brendan, so you're not mewling stuff into a prison, but you're shooting a thing with Marty Sheen, and then you come back and you... They what? They go, hey, we've re-decided... We thought about it...

We want you for skill time. No, there was a new casting director. It was a shakeup in the Paramount structure. Stanley Jaffe was going to direct the picture. And then I think he was the studio boss, if I'm not mistaken. And then he stepped down to be a producer. And then Sherry Lansing came in to produce the picture. And she was running the studio at the time. And so it was like a new day. And so they started casting again. And I went in again, just like when I got into college. The last absolute appointment was...

And I read for a new casting director who said, you should meet Sherry. I did. I read. She said, I want to test you. And I thought, first, like an exam. Like, you know, I thought sharpened pencils. You thought like sobriety test right then and there. Yeah, exactly. Straight line. She was like, what are you doing tomorrow? I'm like, I don't know. I'm doing it.

So I did a screen test. Wow. With Matt Damon. You tested with Damon? Yes, yes, yes. We did like one or two scenes. Memory serves. No kidding. He was so good. I mean, I would never have got hired if it wasn't for him. Yeah, he used to be so good. I agree with you. He used to be great. Film by film. Slowly. Slowly deteriorated. All the talent atrophied.

And now we're left with what we got now. And we like it. We like it. It's fun. Fun to look at. It's fun. Fun to listen to. What's he ever done? Very little. He did school ties and then all downhill. You know what, Brendan? You know what Matt Damon's been relegated to? He's been relegated to fourth place on the Octquartle daily puzzle game.

And wait, local news, I think he's my neighbor. Yes, he is. He is your neighbor. According to the rag, that reports on if a raccoon gets sick. And I know you know him from way back, but don't approach him these days. He's very cantankerous now. Well, he's just had such bad luck with the morning games. He tries this puzzle game that we're in in...

-It's been tough. -He's gotta change his starter word. He does have to change his starter. He's had a tough time. Keeps going with vowels. You gotta go to consonants. So, you do school ties. This movie puts you on the map. And it was kind of like I said in the intro, it was a one-two punch. You do school ties with which--

did quite well at the box office. I mean, it wasn't a smash hit, but it did quite well. It was well-received. And then you do Encino Man with Pauly Shore, which again also made a ton of money and was a big hit, especially, you know, I looked it up compared to its box office. Both these films were legitimate hits for the makers of the film. And this is like a... This is a heck of an intro to entertainment. You have two back-to-back really successful films here.

Was it just on after that, once the release of both these things? Was that the moment Jason described where it was just like... Yeah, it was. Wide collars, Ferraris. No, but like everything was... Jacuzzis. Vegas. Oh, a bunch of small dogs. Little lap dogs. Lap dogs and jacuzzis. Bonbons. Yeah.

Broads. Broads everywhere. All this time I've had a Yorkshire Terrier in my lap and you didn't know. Did you have it the whole time? Yes. Listener, we just saw a Yorkshire Terrier run through the shot. Do you know that dog? It's my dog. It's supposed to be in your house? All right. Yeah, that's Pee-wee. She's the security. Pee-wee. Beware. So B-Phrase, you...

So when those movies hit, how did you process that? Because if it's your first two and you just think, oh, this is how this goes, I'll be set. In a way, I did. I mean, I wasn't so naive that I thought, well, everybody does this. No, they don't. I knew that this was a good entree, a good calling card. And I think if you're making diverse choices, then people are...

bound to pay a little bit more attention like wait no you're a comedy guy no you're a drama guy you can't write those but right in this case i i guess lightning struck or something and i was fortunate that way and then i went on to do yeah a bunch of good stuff in those days they were called independent films yeah sure other budgets that they were yes i know like independent of what

what independent of a business daddy letting you have distribution or independent of someone breathing down your neck making creative choices from far far away from behind a desk right maybe but you know I

Anyway, so I was keeping busy in that whole world. That's right. Right, right. And then, but then, so we go through that sort of working actor, staying busy, all that stuff. And then, uh, I mean, do we jump a wheel? I don't want to, I don't want to jump your, your, your timeline on your questions here, but Darren Aronofsky calls. Yeah. Or, or did you find it and call him? Which is the, which is the whale. Yes. A lot, a lot, uh, a lot happened. Uh,

life and career and ups and downs and this stuff that we all go through and grow and learn from and all that. And that's great. And I did hear from Darren and initially the word on the street was Darren's going to make a movie. And would you like to meet him? The answer is yes, absolutely. You know, anybody would carry his bag. Yeah. I was, yeah,

creatively intimidated when I first met him in his offices in Chinatown. That was in January of 2020. But he was really forthcoming about the part. He said, it's about, I didn't know anything other than it's about a guy who's been living alone and he's been overeating. He's been harming himself that way. And whether he means to or not is up for interpretation. And he has a strained relationship with his daughter. And he has an epiphany that if he doesn't reconnect with her, his

his very soul is at stake and that's about all i knew i mean and darren said i need to cast an actor first of all who can play the part but at the same time we'll be able to create charlie from the outside in with and he said we have to do it with prosthetics um and he'd worked with adrian moreau several times previously it was fantastic so good at his job as a makeup artist yes yeah

And because it was, you know, January 2020, COVID was looming and, you know, March rolled around after we did a reading of it. Yeah. We all went home for a while, clearly. Yeah. But I got hired to work with Steven Soderbergh. Again, I worked with him back in the day on a series for Showtime called Fallen Angels. And they were like these shorts that

were being directed anyway, but he called up to play the bag man in, um, uh, no sudden move with Don Cheadle. Yeah. Really great cast. And, uh, Darren texted me and he sent this research material and, and, uh, he was kind of like, you know, get on it. And I didn't know if I was hired or not. I had to actually ask him, I'm like, I'm sorry, did I get the part? And he's like, yes, you did now get the word. Um, so great. And, uh, from there, um,

We started in January of 2021 rehearsing for The Whale for three weeks.

which is great because A24 is very filmmaker and actor friendly, supportive. They do everything. Like everything they touch works. You see A24. It's eye-opening. You know, you want to know what they're up to. They take fair creative risks. And, you know, I guess financial ones too, but that's not my wheelhouse. But yes, they're really great. And so we, like everyone at that time,

Started working with all the protocols and safety measures and everything. And we were about to start shooting and then I got COVID. Oh, wow. So that was... Did you have an easy time with it? Were you one of the lucky ones? I lost my taste and my smell. And I was really stupider than I normally am. Like I had brain fog, you know, like sleeping a lot. Yeah. But we started. We got going. We worked under... Everyone worked under...

existential threat will there be a tomorrow right the same way and it it really added to the the i think the film in a great way and what kind of research did he send you because it was a play was it not that's right yeah oh it was samuel d hunter had produced this at um new horizons in 2012 where darren first saw it and then optioned it from him oh wow they developed it for 10 years oh

And Sam Hunter adapted his own stage play for the screen also. First time. I mean, not bad. That's his first screenplay? First one. Seriously. Wow. First one. Like, wow. You know, talent doesn't go away, I guess they say. No. Well, you know, that one clip of you... Sometimes it never shows up at all. Go ahead, Sean. Sorry. Perfect timing. The clip of you where... The clip of you where you were in the audience...

I don't know where it was, watching a screening of The Whale and you had this, what seemed like an unexpected standing ovation. And you got so emotional. That was Venice, wasn't it? I got emotional watching you get emotional. And I hadn't even seen the movie yet, but just that clip was so powerful. Just to see you standing up, receiving all of those accolades. It was really, really cool to see that. Thank you.

That was, that's a core memory for me now. What I was looking at is 1,200 Italians who you don't see are all screaming and crying. So it's kind of infectious, I think. Everyone has this sort of like mild group hysteria. I think it goes on for long enough. I was trying to get out of the, and Darren's like, no, take a bow. He's the boss. Yeah. Yeah.

So the conversation, so it was a combination as far as the look of the whale, which for those who don't know is about someone who's very, very overweight, yeah? Yes. And consequently homebound, right? Yes.

So the conversation was, was it going to be all prosthetics or did that kind of evolve into, well, you know, Darren, I think I can put on X number of these pounds practically. And then we kind of augment with the makeup. How did those conversations go? I had to meet the guy halfway, you know. On paper, it says he's 600. That's just a number, 600 pounds. Sure.

The research that he'd sent was documentary footage, was interviews. You know, I mean, the point is, is the man has serious mobility issues. He can't get up off of his couch. And without it being a Herculean effort, which was important as a plot point to the film. If you come see it, you'll understand why. But I guess I just had to go with what I had and try and meet the character more or less halfway, I think. What did that involve for you practically? Yeah.

Well, four hours of makeup in the morning. Wow. You know, we're all, look, I'm an actor and you are too. I love my job. I don't have a problem. I can sleep when you're dead, you know. And besides, Adrian was there an hour before and an hour after. So, you know, I'm not going to cry anyone any tears. But yeah, it was an extensive process to just be patient, be patient.

a patient to patient. But meeting him halfway meant that you had to bulk up and you had to work on your diet and you had to add things. What was that process like? And did it ever feel scary?

We had that conversation. We just said, you know what? The concern was, Brandon, don't go and lose weight now because then the prosthetics won't work because they were created with a scan because we couldn't get together and pour the goop on your face and make a mold, you know? So the producer came and he held an iPad up to me in my driveway, you know, 15 feet away from each other. And that data went to Montreal and Adrian created Charlie virtually, which is important because...

the body itself becomes a texture map. He can create clearly anything. I mean, he had control over the size of the pores, the placement of them, little anomalies in the skin stretch, all that stuff. And it skips a step in the regular process, which is sculpting by hand, compounding and all that. So it was interesting because this is

I'm pretty sure like the future of how we're going to be doing prosthetics at this point forward. I mean, and it's, it's seamless. It's seamless. I mean, I had been, I did a movie called, um, bedazzled, a Harold Ramis picture. And I was in five or six different full on prosthetic makeups. And I went back and looked at him again. That was Matthew Mungle's work and he is fantastic. He's since retired. He's a great guy. And, um,

You can still see, like, you know, it looks more handmade. You know, you suspend your disbelief to buy into what you're looking at. And with the whale and Charlie...

it's not a digital creation at all. It's been wrongly, um, reported that it is. It's not, I mean, with the exception of maybe a seam on a bib that got taken out in post. Right. Or if the fabric was acting, acting up on a shirt. That doesn't count. That doesn't count. No, it doesn't. I mean, but seriously, otherwise it was, you know, analog, um,

Well, I think that there are ways that you do, certainly as actors, and Jason, you can probably speak to this. I mean, all the surgery that you've had, do you find that that is just kind of like more permanent makeup? Is that what you look at? It's more permanent, but we do have to do a lot of digital removals of some of the staples. Sure. But it cuts down time in the chair. Yes. Yeah. We'll be right back. All right, back to the show. Brendan, let me ask you a question. So you...

You've had a very long, complicated relationship, not with acting, because you've always been consistent in what you do, but with show business. What do you feel about... How is your relationship with show business now in terms of, like, do you find yourself, like...

having conflicting feelings about it, but the way that the business works and all that stuff. Or how it's changed. Or how it's changed or have you learned stuff? Are you cynical? Are you, I don't know. I've been through many iterations of the business. I mean, I white-knuckled it for 20 years or so. And, you know, I saw a lot of things. We all did. The advent of everything kind of going to,

horse and cart to internal combustion engine around 2009. Yeah. With a movie that I did, which was the beta for Avatar. It was called Journey to Center of the Earth. Oh, yeah. It was in 3D, you know? And that technology was being battle tested along with those cameras. And that went to New Zealand and James Cameron, you know, then made Avatar from those. So...

I say this because, you know, we all kind of went from a sort of analog world to a digital world. And that really changed the business a lot, too. Suddenly, anything, anything is possible. And it upped the stakes in terms of what we can do and what we will accept about what we're seeing.

Then that changed again, of course. So here we are now in 2023 and all of these slick images can be created on the relative cheap for anything you want to do. And we find ourselves in a place where you have to differentiate yourself. You have to get back to storytelling. I think, you know, just all the bells and whistles are great. And I love that stuff. I really do.

Well, you have to get back to, you know, the one, two, threes of an actor. What do I want from this? You know, how am I going to get it? What's the obstacle? Who's, what tactic will I use? And then cross your fingers. And, you know, when I, when I was younger, when I was younger, the game was so much different as an actor that it is now, right? When you were,

you know, in the 80s and 90s or whatever, it was here's my picture and resume. I got to bug my agent. I go on an audition. I sit and wait for the phone to ring and that's it. Now, you know, if people say, you know, my sister say, hey, a friend of my daughter's wants to get into the business. What's your advice?

You know, it's like you almost have to be everything now. You have to be a writer, producer, director, actor. You have to create your own stuff on YouTube or create your own content. Sean, we talked about it the other night. You and I talked about it. Yeah. We talked about how hard it would be. Sean and I were both saying, it's got to be so hard studying as an actor right now. I'm sorry, guys. That's all good. Pee-wee, you're fired! Pee-wee, we're going to get Pee-wee back. Poor dog just lost his job.

But we were talking about the idea, right, Sean, that it would be so hard if you were starting today. As an actor, you know, you get a job, you know, on a streamer or a network or something and, you know, nothing goes. It doesn't seem like it. Maybe it does. But nothing goes for 100 episodes anymore. So to get a gig as an actor, that's the life. You go gig to gig. But it seems like it's less and less. Like you get six episodes of something and then you have to pound the pavement to find something.

another gig in between these short, short, short runs, and they seem to be getting shorter and shorter. But my point is, my question is, does any of that... Do you do this... Do you do...

Does any part of you want to... You got nominated for your question-asking abilities. Oh, yeah. Sorry, Brendan. You know that of the three of us, Sean was nominated for host of the year last year. Host of the year. They actually broke up the threesome. They singled him out and said, no, he's clearly the best at interviewing, asking questions, following up. And you got a front row seat as to why. Yeah. So check this out, Brendan. Sean? Got my vote. Which is...

Which out of the three of us is the worst one to pick. Me. But anyway, my question. No, you didn't win. Okay. It was just to follow up. There was not a win there. And the following year they corrected their mistake and it's now the three of us. So check this out, Brendan. Go.

Never to be heard of again. Heard from again me. But my point is, does any of that... And forgive me if you are into that. I just don't know. But does any of you want to be... How many times have you said that in your life? Forgive me if you are into this. But...

go ahead no but i do want to know does any of those other facets in inspire you want you to kind of do any of those other things write direct produce star all of those things at the same time or you're like you know what i like staying in this one lane of being an actor yeah i'm gonna stay in my lane for now i mean i i also i'm spectacularly lazy and somewhat of a luddite too so

And there's so many good directors that I want to work with. And also, I mean, I have a lot to still...

Yeah, and with that, so staying, you want to stay focused purely on the acting, which is totally admirable, and you really want to work with all these directors. So given this presumed moment of relevance, again, which we're always all striving for, it's just like, let me get an at-bat. So there's the great at-bat, you know, coming up here with all this great, well-deserved notoriety. Do you have a...

I'm not going to ask you for your goal or your plan or to the extent that you even have thought about that, but you've accomplished so much and you've been in the business for such a long time. How would you like this next stage of your time in the business to go if you allow yourself to dream a little bit?

I want to work in features consistently again. I have been really happy with the streaming experiences and doing short projects like Trust for FX with Donald Sutherland and Danny Boyle directed that. I mean, there's really exciting things to be done. We all know that in streaming. But to Sean's point, yeah, it can be really limiting at the same time too, which has its pros and cons. For

For whatever's next, guys, it's an open road. You just want to stay working, yeah? Essentially, I do. I mean, I still always have this feeling I'm that kid back in Seattle and someone's going to walk up to me and hand me a dish towel and say, can I get back in? And is the draw, sorry, is the draw because you have a real excitement to morph into something

that are not you? Like, is that like a pure acting passion or is it to be a part of a team effort to build a film under the tutelage of some really talented director? Like, what's the thing that really excites you about it all? Yes, both of those. Those are excellent points. That and also, I'd love to do, revisit things that really were exciting that I got to do, like The Mummy. Yeah.

You know, those big franchise pieces. I love that. Those really... I mean, it's just becoming apparent. Really, I mean, the gravity of it is really 20 whatever years later. It's just...

awakening with me now. You'd like to do another sequel to The Mummy? Are we making news right now? Yeah, that's it. Oh, no, I've already said it. Look, I've been screaming this from the rooftops for 10 years. Give us something new. Give us something fresh. That's all I got, guys. I don't have news for you. I think I heard you say you want to do School Ties 2. Would that be fair to say? What about The Daddy? What about Daddy 2? The Mummy and then The Daddy. Listen, Jason, keep up, okay? We're doing loose word association. It's not even clever and or witty.

But you'd like to get into some sort of a franchise, potentially The Mummy. Bring it back. Oh, my God. Or a new one, you know? I mean, I know... Didn't Cruise jump in there for a minute? Didn't Tom Cruise jump in there? Oh, yes. Yeah, he did. But you like... What you're saying is you like those big, huge...

Hollywood tentpole movies as well, because you did a bunch of them. You'd like to do one of those again. Like, those are fun to do. I mean, I would. I like the broad mass appeal. Yeah, popcorn stuff. Everything I'm for. Because I have three kids, 16, 18, and 20 now. Wow. You know, I made so many of these choices to...

I'll admit to some personal vanity to try and impress them, but their kids. And I learned that they're like, no, I want to watch Power Rangers. You're boring. So, you know, that bubble got burst. But the point is, I know that so many people who watch that film all have kids of their own now. And it becomes a part of their personal mythology, their culture that they bring with them. And that could not have been impressed upon me earlier on.

More so than it is now. And, you know, and going forward, just to answer your question, I'd like to participate in however that gets put on the screen. Again, if it's a mummy or something else, I guess it's a toss up between doing something I really care about, like the whale and something that is, you know, has broad appeal and, you

And ideally do both as you were doing. It worked early on. And you were kind of doing that. And you were doing that. You were doing that. Yeah. I remember you did Gods and Monsters with Ian McKellen, which was a great film. But Robert De Niro says that. Isn't he famous for saying, one for me, three for them. One for me, three for them. I don't know. He's kind of famous for a lot of things.

shot. I mean, let's be honest, that's not what he's famous for. He may have famously said, but he's not famous. Are you looking at me? You talking to me? You must be talking to me because I didn't see anybody else talking to me. Hey, a little bit. A little bit. You know, a little bit. Good. Well, remember? Remember? A little bit. You guys have seen my, you guys have seen my De Niro, right? Oh, will you give us some more? You know, I'm not going to do a lot, but I might give you a little bit. A little bit. Sure.

We love the cheap stuff here, Brendan. We sure do. We're just having fun here. We're cheapies. It's a Thursday morning, and we're trying to do our best to have fun. Do your kids have any dreams, aspirations? I was going to ask the same thing. I was going to ask the same thing. They're creative. Yeah. Yes, my youngest picked up a guitar, and he can seriously shred. I'm like, wow. Wow.

and he is studying music theory. He's only 16, so. Wow. That's Leland and...

Holden, my 18-year-old son, is interested for sure in acting, and he's going to study. I don't want to say the name of the university he's going to go to, but I'm really very excited for him. He got an early acceptance as a high school senior. Oh, good for you, Dad. That's nice going. And my oldest son is Griffin. He's a special needs kid. He's rated on autism spectrum, and he's the best version of himself that he ever was.

And he's just the manifestation of love that keeps us all together and really just gives me the understanding

the reason why we even run around chasing our tails doing this crazy stuff. Yeah, amen. Now, are they all three in the house with you there? You guys all live up there? No, I mean, the two younger guys, they live in Greenwich with their mom. Yeah. They're always over here. Yeah. I have laundry to prove it and broken windows. Yeah. Yeah, I'm so glad I got two girls. Boys will keep you busy, right? Wow. Well, you know what? I had a friend who had three girls, and he called them the fight club. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. There is, there is an age there where they, they, they, they really learn their instrument. Um, I've got, uh, I've got three boys myself, Brendan. So they're a little bit younger and, uh, but we're, it's a, it's a zoo here every morning. Have they taken you to the emergency room yet? Well, uh, Oh God, mine have. Yeah. Yeah. Right. You have. Oh God. Oh,

In my family, we had to have a punch card. You know, three, get one free. Stitches. Just once for me with Franny. But with boys, I hear it's annual. Archie and Abel, a lot of stitches. But how I should be pointing out, both of them are snitches. And I had warned them. I had warned them.

because everybody knows. Listen to daddy. Well, I just know that snitches get snitches. That's another thing you learned at Juliet, right, Will? Uncle Brendan has also been to jail.

And we always said that in Canada growing up in Rosedale in Toronto. And this comes all the way back around to Sean's kid, Ricky, got stitches after the tumor came out, put in a jar, but now it's flamed up again then, right? Yeah. Well, and it fell in because he and Scotty was cooking up a big pot of pork and beans. And it fell in. A big sloppy pot of pork and beans. What is that secret? He gave it a little kick. Sure.

And they have... Sean, last time you had pork and beans, be honest. I literally just had barbecued pork sandwich yesterday for lunch. Doesn't count. I mean a big pot of beans and then you slice up some hot dogs and toss them in. Oh, that'll happen this week. How good does that sound? So good. And mac and cheese. Brendan Fraser, we have taken up way too much of your time, but gosh, it's so fun getting to know you and it's so... Very happy for you, man. Yeah, it's really such a great story to see you. Congratulations on...

all the success you've had with this film and the nominations through the roof for everything. Academy Award, BAFTA, everything. And the best news of all, you look exactly the same. And you do look exactly the same as you did 20 years ago. You look terrific. Yes, you do.

You got a great outlook on life, and it's just what a joy to have you, man. Thanks, guys. Yeah. I'm really happy to be your guest. Thank you. Yeah. Oh, wait. And Will, I just want to tell you... Here comes your note. When Holden was like probably six or seven years old, I think it was when the Lego Batman movie was on, and he loved it so much, and he would quote you when you...

As Batman said, that he doesn't wear black, just dark shades, just shades of gray. How is, do you remember that line? I only work in black and sometimes, sometimes gray. I think that's what the quote, very dark gray. Some shades of gray. Some shades of, you know what? It's funny that, that, that it's funny you say that, Brendan. So this morning, all four boys were having breakfast because I have three sons and a stepson and

We're all having breakfast, and Denny, my two-and-a-half-year-old, he's drinking his milk out of a cup that's got Superman on it. And he looks at it, and he looks up at me and goes, that you, Dada? And I go, no. No, that's Superman.

I didn't get that one. Three callbacks, though. Yeah, it was pretty good. Listen, dude, again, what a pleasure. Please say hi to your son for me from Lego Batman. And we'll see you. I don't know when this airs, but an early, hopefully, congratulations on the Oscar. Yes. Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right, pal. Thanks, pal. Be well. Bye. You too. Thanks, pal. You too. Thanks. Bye, Brendan. Bye. Bye, buddy.

How great. You know, you said it, Will. There's a good story there, and, you know, there's too many bad stories in this world and in this business. That is a real piece of good news right there. It really is. I'm really happy for you. And also, like, it's such a story, like, if you, you know, for actors...

wherever you are in your career, if it's the thing you love to do, it doesn't have to be acting, you just keep doing it. It doesn't, like, you come and go, everything ebbs and flows. Except with Chinese food. You know, just because it tastes good doesn't mean you need to finish it. Sean did go the other day, though. He went back to...

He told me about this. I found a chin chin that was open. Remember, I thought it was closed. You don't need to text us with that. Okay? We weren't wondering. Hey, the chin chin on Sunset's still open. Yeah, I didn't know. Got it. Are you angry because you're jealous? Yeah. No, but it was the same reaction of like the toothless old prospector who's like in the river all day. I've found one! There's two!

You know what I mean? I'm so happy I texted you both. And the Toothless community, don't come after me for that. But I just... They're pretty big. But listen, you know, look, again, I don't know when this is going to air, but...

I'm sure the Oscar goes too, right? -I think so. -I mean, that performance is incredible. He'll have a very good seat at a minimum there at the ceremony. It is true. It is so nice to see a guy who's seeming like such a nice guy. And Sean, I agree with you. It's--

that he has kind of just continued to do what he does and be himself and blah, blah, blah. And sometimes the stars align and the world catches up with you and sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't and you just keep going. And then you just keep going. Remember John Travolta when Quentin Tarantino put him in Pulp Fiction. It was like, great, welcome. Yeah, well, that's why I wanted to say to him, like, does it...

you hate calling it a comeback because in John Travolta's case too, he must have been like, I'm still the same guy. Right. It's just they got another opportunity at a very high profile project. Yeah, it's just a high, yeah, it just matters how high profile. And then everyone, so that happens or if you're an actor and it's not working out, you move towards directing because people aren't responding to your acting anymore. Right. That's a shot. That's a shot at me, Sean. So you focus more on directing. Here he comes. Because,

Because as people watch you, they're like, no, enough. We can't see it anymore. Not the face anymore. Get behind the camera now. No more. Go to the face. Wait, Will, when you guys were talking about the places you were in Canada, could you get there by driving or walking? Or is there another way you could get there? Don't go high. Don't go high. By riding a...

Will's gone high. Will's gone high. You can't do it without going high, right? Bicycle. Or maybe buy a biplane. That was a nice fizzle. You're really good at fizzling. And music grams. Smart. Worse. Smart. Worse.

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