Brendan Fraser reveals near-death experience filming The Mummy: 'I was choked out'
Brendan Fraser has opened up about how he almost died by hanging to death on the set of 1999’s The Mummy when a rope stunt went potentially fatally wrong.
Brendan Fraser attends the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, California, U.S., February 26, 2023. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci
Brendan Fraser was almost hanged to death on The Mummy set. The Oscar-tipped The Whale actor, 54, said he was “choked out” when a rope stunt went potentially fatally wrong and said it was “nearly” the end of his life.
He told The Kelly Clarkson Show on Tuesday (Feb 28) when asked if the 1999 film nearly saw him killed: “Nearly. Well, I was choked out accidentally.
“I was standing on my toes like this, with the rope (around my neck), and you only got so far.
“And (the director) Stephen (Sommers) ran over and he said, ‘Hey, it doesn’t really look like you’re 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 – I had nowhere to go but down.
“And 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, there was gravel in my teeth and everyone was really quiet.”
Fraser, who has sons Griffin, 20, Holden, 18, and Leland, 16, with his ex-wife Afton Smith, added he heard the stunt boss say when he came around: “Congratulations, you're in the club – the same thing happened to Mel Gibson on Braveheart.
Fraser added he replied: “Thanks, I think?! I wanna go home!”
But the actor, who is Oscar-nominated for his role as obese teacher Charlie in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale insisted he “loves” his job.
He added about getting an Academy Award nod: “I think it’s a fulfillment of an aspiration that I would have never even thought to dare to have allowed, let alone to myself, until I came into my 50s and I looked at my life, who I am, what I know about love from my kids and it gives it a context now.
“I love my job – it is the best one in the world, it also has proven to be something that I can do to help reach others in a way that’s meaningful that has gratitude, that has taught me some humility, that’s why.”
