Brendan Fraser Recalls Near-Death Experience on The Mummy

Brendan Fraser performed some wild stunts during his time filming The Mummy franchise. One stunt in particular, though, caused Fraser to have a near-death experience.

During a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Fraser talked about a stunt from the original 1999 film The Mummy, in which Fraser was hanged by a rope and ended up actually passing out as a result of it.

“I was standing on my toes like this with the rope and you only got so far to go,” said Fraser. “And [director Stephen Sommers] ran over and he said, ‘Hey, it doesn’t really look like your choking. Can you sell it?’ And I was like ‘All right, fine,” so I thought ‘One more take, man.’ And the camera swooped around, and I went up on the toes and the guy holding the rope above me, he pulled it up a little higher, and I was stuck on my toes and I had nowhere to go but down. So he was pulling up and I was going down, and then the next thing I knew, my elbow was in my ear, the world was sideways and there was gravel in my teeth, and everyone was really quiet.”

Fraser went on to note that the stunt coordinator for the film immediately rushed to get Fraser up and make sure he was okay. When he found out he was, the coordinator jokingly congratulated him, saying “Congratulations, you’re in the club — same thing happened to Mel Gibson on Braveheart.”

Thankfully for Fraser, he ended up okay from the stunt and would go on to star in several more The Mummy films. Recently, his performance in 2022’s The Whale has earned him a ton of praise, including a Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards, as well as a win for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.