3 Times Brendan Fraser Was the Best Acting With CGI
Brendan Fraser is finally an Oscar winning actor, deservedly so for his performance in The Whale. The outpouring of love and recognition for Fraser in the last year has been heartwarming because he’s always been great, since his powerhouse debuts in 1992’s Encino Man and School Ties. His specialty, it would turn out, would be in acting opposite CGI visual effects.
From the late ‘90s to early ‘00s, Fraser appeared in several movies with co-stars who would be added in later with computers. It was already becoming a common practice after Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park, and hasn’t stopped with the Marvel movies. Nobody ever did it better than Fraser though, and these three roles are the proof.
The ‘Mummy’ movies shows CGI couldn’t phase Brendan Fraser
1999’s The Mummy took inspiration from Indiana Jones for its swashbuckling desert adventure. Indiana Jones didn’t have entirely computer generated characters to contend with in the ’80s. The mummy himself (Arnold Vosloo) was CGI for most of the movie until he absorbed enough souls to get his body back. His sandstorm and scarabs magic were also CGI threats.
Fraser treated the mummy as a real threat no matter what form he took. The best example of this was when his character, Rick O’Connell, learned the mummy’s weakness, cats. So he showed up to a scene where the mummy was threatening his friends holding a cat, saying, “Look what I got” with satisfaction usually reserved for human costars.
Fraser made two sequels to The Mummy which only ramped up the CGI additions. It always requires good directing and actors using their imaginations when they are performing on green screens or looking at Xs or tennis balls. Everyone could take a cue from Fraser’s gusto in the Mummy movies.
Brendan Fraser treated the ‘Looney Tunes’ like master thespians
There has also been a long history of live-action actors interacting with animated characters, long before computers were in play. Bob Hoskins is pretty unimpeachable in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and there were the likes of Mary Poppins and Song of the South before him. By the time Fraser starred in Looney Tunes: Back in Action, they used computers to add the animated characters.
Fraser excelled at this the same way actors in Muppet movies do, where they treat the puppets like legitimate costars. The Muppets are physically there though. No one else had totally mastered it when it comes to CGI, probably because it’s not actually on set with them. Even Guardians of the Galaxy has Sean Gunn standing in for Rocket on the set. Fraser interacted with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, expressing genuine human frustrations with some of their animated shenanigans, as well as Hoskins did.
‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ made outrageous CGI badass
By the time of 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, Fraser had almost a decade of experience working with CGI. The Jules Verne adaptation was a showcase for 3D visual effects, but they had a secret weapon with Fraser. No matter how outrageous the CGI creations were, Fraser treated them like genuine threats. He’s a total badass punching out neon fluorescent flowers, likely thanks to his experience on the Mummy movies.
Sadly, Fraser did not return for the sequel Journey 2: The Mysterious Island. Among other things, you can tell The Rock doesn’t have the same relationship to CGI as Fraser did.
