SmartLess - "Brendan Fraser"

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

Weaze the juice…it’s Brendan Fraser. Items you’ll need for this ep: a punch card, a video magnetofon, prison WIFI, pork and beans, and a hidden Yorkshire Terrier. Safety first; it’s SmartLess.Please support us by supporting our sponsors.This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/SMARTLESS and get on your way to being your best self.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a classic like, okay, I say, can I, no I'm, Can I just say, what, okay, okay, oh, can I, can I just say, okay, so. All I'm trying to say, so I wanted to say yeah. Okay, okay, just one minute. Can I say, one word, can I say, can I say one word, can I say, do you want to listen to me? Listen. All I'm saying.

It's all going to be smartless. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. Smart. 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? 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? What are you thinking that 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. Yeah. And for the listener, Ricky is your best friend, your buddy.

Yeah. Your buddy's got a terrible case of herpes constantly, right? 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, scabs for you? No, no, we don't watch any videos about earwax. Do you? Yeah. Or like the doctor, the pimple popper thing? Yeah, pimple popper.

I know, it's incredible. I think it's like, it's so sad. 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. And it's this dermatologist and she goes in, she has people who have like extreme growths and acne and cysts and shit. And she like gets rid of them and extracts them. It's fascinating. Yeah, yeah. It's so great.

So sorry, listener. We're gonna be a bit. Where is this? On the television side. 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. Yeah, well you can YouTube. And you can YouTube it. You would be blown away and the millions of views that they get, I mean. And the draw is just come and watch 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, it's 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 where it goes into them. And like, no, I don't, man. I don't fucking know where that is. So Sean, there is a. Oh, the earwax.

Is a common thing where earwax. Yeah, well you can. You show about that too. 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 listen, 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 in there and they go, yeah, and the guy takes it out. I kept it in a jar. Booping like a little container, because it was so. I need to see that. Do you still have it? Oh God.

I sold it. Someone woke up this little kitty cat. I sold it. Oh, 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 herpetic. Did I use that right? Yeah, that is right, actually.

I know you did. 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. Oh God, don't make a stone-truck person with the food. This is sort of like a little pod with meat on the inside.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just kind of open and watch it all come out. I feel bad for our guests. They've had to listen to potentially our most disgusting intro to the show ever. It 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 in pretty easy going. You know how we are up there, eh? Oh, sure. Yeah, so you can talk about the gross stuff and we're like, oh fuck, that's pretty gross there, bud. But all right, you know, not gonna 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 a 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 a huge blockbuster franchise films. He was in really cool, interesting indie films. And then for a moment, it felt like, it almost felt like I wasn't,

we weren't seeing him in as many films for a minute. We're gonna get into that part of his life. Sure will. But then he came back bigger than ever. Wait, if this is who I think it is. Someone say, as big as a whale, guys, it's none other than Brendan Fraser. No way! Good Lord!

Hi guys. Hi! Brendan Fraser! Well, what an honor, very pleasure. You are a busy man right now, huh? Yes, but not too busy. You're up early doing a podcast with us. It's a guy, nothing could be busier. Happy to drop in.

Are you in LA right now? No, no, I'm in New York. I live in an update in 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 gotta 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 gotta 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, it's 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 epistleistic question. Did I leave or did it leave me? I just only know as 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 and 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 hold and a 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 valley was? I've always kept busy, that's for sure. I mean, I don't think there was a year when I didn't have something to do. Yeah, exactly, yeah. 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 I think I was even in competition with myself on some weekends, you know, in the genius of release dates. Wow. Where is that guy? Right. Oh, it's me. Oh, so busy.

So how was that? Did you enjoy that level of busyness and notoriety and like another version of Brendan that was someone other than who you had grown up being, you know, like the public's version? I guess I kind of had blinders on. I didn't really pay that much attention to the result of what I was doing.

So much as I was doing what I was doing to keep busy. I guess the answer is I was never a big party guy and never went out. I stayed away from, you know, glitzy events and that kind of thing. I was like, 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, I would have been a lot of high fives coming from me. Oh, dude. So you didn't miss much anyway, Brendan. So I don't think I did either, but you know, I was too busy trying to stay, keep my head in the game for whatever I had. I was up to you.

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, can't remember where it was. It was an event and I just, it was, I just couldn't, I couldn't believe I was meeting. I was like, oh my God, it's Brendan Fraser.

And you were the nicest Saturday night life. No, no, it was, 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 and clearly. He's got no memory of this show. Yeah, really. He's got no memory of this show.

It 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. I had you showing up with that tumor in a jar, Sean. You wouldn't have forgotten that. Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, that's what that really means. So Brendan, let's go way back a little bit. So as I mentioned that, what sort of, 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. Dual heritage. But Canada definitely claims me as local boy done good. Which part of Canada? Ottawa, Ontario, Toronto. My father, I have a family in Vancouver, in BC. Oh, all over the place. My father hails from the Maritimes

and my mom was a girl in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Canadian cowboy. Wait a second, hang on one second. Your dad's from the Maritimes. What part of the Maritimes do you know exactly? Is he behind Nova Scotia? From Nova Scotia, wait till Eli hears about this. Our buddy Eli, who, you know,

right, he just stopped combing somebody's hair. Mid brush. He's this, what? 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 gonna lose it. You know, they'll say, is that right?

Oh, he's not right. Fuck, you know what? I think he'll always do that. Who's your father's father? Yeah, who is he? Oh, yeah. Everyone knows everyone. Yeah, I 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 is called the Maritimes.

No, it's not M-A-R-Y, second word, T-R-M-E. Yeah. Oh, now it's Maritime. During the week, I worked for my boss, but come Friday, it's Maritime. That's M-E-R-R-Y. Yeah. Christmas, that's Maritime.

So, Sean, oh, 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 completely, 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 wanna be on stage. Yeah, you move down to the States, and you go to high school in the States, yes? Something 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 were up. Sounds like spy work to me. Go ahead. I know, I can 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. 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, in the 70s, he was posted in Holland.

We lived there for four years, and then Seattle, Washington. Think back, did you ever hear sirens consistently, the last sound you heard before you left places? Think back, yeah, think back. Because if you heard sirens, were you guys living in the middle of the night a lot? Yeah.

Were you hustled into vans? We'll side guard this, yeah. Well, I was just gonna say a lot of B.C. and Holland. There's also a real weed trail here, Brendan, that I don't think there is. Good, well, good. We're gonna crack this, Brendan. It started early.

So then, okay, so you're moving all around, and you decide, and you're drawn to acting to theater, 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 Eric McCormick and Mike Myers and all those people? No. I don't know that. Okay, Sean. I think they went to, I wanna 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- I was, 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 unsolidated at the same time, so a lot doesn't make sense to me. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha.

Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. Well, speaking of which, how many, I'm gonna 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 gotta pick one. Like, are we in that moment right now? No, I've lived that before. I've felt, I've had that. Well, 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? 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. Ha ha ha. He's right, Jason, that's right. Got a good set of reading glasses. Yeah, 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, and 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 gonna be an actor, and you what?

You move, you go, I'm gonna go to LA, or I'm gonna go to New York, where'd you do? Well, yeah, that was in Toronto, did that. My family lived in Seattle. Seattle. Seattle. Yes, in the Northwest. 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, and when you're doing a play, you have a tribe for a short while, you know the drill.

And 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, do you guys like it? Am I in? What? And somebody did like one of these in the office. What's your name again? Frasier notes, it's Fraser, Fraser, yeah, you're in, can you come now? Yeah, nice.

So I got accepted, 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, I had a four year program in 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 Intamon, theater, that was a wild summer. The Russians showed up for the Goodwill Games, they was called, and the goodwill game. The entire Soviet Manic Company from Moscow brought three sisters, and I mean everything, all the little babushkas and other sets, and their laundry, everything.

And like, descended on his 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 some yoghurt. Medrugia, I want to buy a video magnet, 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 it 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 gonna start,

so I needed to get there. So I left Seattle, drove down the coast, and I stopped in Hollywood in California with the ignorant idea that I would, yeah, I'd make a little cash in this pilot season thing or whatever that was before I went to grad school the following semester, but 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 out of my car. Jason uses an airport in the valley all the time. Somebody said L.E.X. to him the other day, and he said, what's that? Laxative, I'm plenty regular, what the...

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So we all like to feel our best self, right? And I feel my best self when I am infusing my values into my life. So there's a lot of things that you value, right? So for example, like I value nature. I like, I enjoy the outdoors and stuff like that. So if I go for a walk or a hike or I'm, you know, up in the mountains somewhere,

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And now back to the show. All right, so you're in LA totally on your own basically and starting from scratch. And one thing leads to literally like maybe a play, commercials, episodics, feature. Here we go. I got cast in a pilot for Castle Rock. It was that's Rob Reiner's company, right?

Yep. 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. It didn't get hired. They were doing a big drift net search for whoever their David was going to be. Then I did get hired to go work with Martin Sheen in Pittsburgh on a jail movie about a guy who was wrongly accused and his father comes and breaks him off 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. Sure. I got mistaken for a prisoner. Except for wearing the same thing.

That was scary. That sounds painful. Dax and I made that prison movie. Yes. We shot that. 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 did it. And it's weird being in an actual prison. Let me just say, by the way, anybody in prison listening to that, 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 listen and 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, mulling in the Wi-Fi, you know. But, like, literally, like, that's below.

Yeah, you can have a TV. You can have Wi-Fi. And you can have... I think guys are mulling in routers up the rectum. Do you see routers coming all shapes and sizes now? Guys. What? Fuck.

Wait, what's mulling? What is mulling? Again, another sidebar for us. When people bring stuff... Keeping a list. You know, like, when you're, like, when you're getting on a plane from Bogota and you have to swallow, like, 15 or 20 condos filled with cocaine. Got it.

Got it. You know? That's called mulling. Anyway, guys, I've heard enough people already this morning. So, Brendan, so, you're not mulling stuff into prison, but you're shooting a thing with Marty Sheen and then you come back and you... They want, they go, hey, we've re-designed, we've re-thought about it. We want you for a skintone.

No, there was a new casting director as a shake-up in the Paramount structure. Stanley Jaffe was going to direct the picture. Wow. 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, like, just like when I got into college. It was the last absolute appointment. 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 felt like some variety test right then and there. Yeah, exactly. Just straight line hands. She was like, what are you doing tomorrow? I'm like, I don't know. I'm doing it. So I'm going to do a screen test with Matt Damon.

And you tested with Damon? Yes. Yes. Yes. We did like one or two scenes. Memory search. No kidding. He was so good. I mean, we never got hired if it wasn't for him.

Yeah. He used to be so good. I agree with you. And then he used to be great. Film by film. Yeah. Slowly deteriorated. All the town atrophy.

And now we're left with what we got now. And we like it. We like it. Fun. Fun to look at. And it's fun. Fun to listen to. But yeah.

But what's he ever done? Very little. He's he now did school ties and then all downhill. You know what, Brendon? You know what Matt Damon's been relegated to? He's relegated to fourth place in the oct, Quirtle daily puzzle game. Which every day.

Local news. I think he's my neighbor. He lives up. 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. Easy. Yeah. He's just had such bad luck with the morning games. He tries this puzzle game that we're in. And it's been tough. He's got to change his starter word. He does have to change the start.

He's had a tough time. He keeps going with vowels. You got to 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, wasn't a smash hit, but it was, 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.

Was it just on after that? Once this was the release of both these things, was that the moment Jason described? Yeah, it was. Wide collars, Ferraris. No, but like everything. Cousins. Vegas. Oh, yeah.

A bunch of small dogs. Little lap dogs. Yeah. You need a dog. Cousins. Bonbons. Broads. Broads everywhere.

This time I had a Yorkshire Terrier in my lap. And you didn't know. Did you have it the whole time? Yes. Listener, we just saw 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. It's just the security. Pee Wee. Beware. So B-phrase. Yes. You, I don't know.

So when those movies hit, was it kind of like how did you process that? Because if it's your first two and there, did 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. I know they don't. But 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 pick those. But in this case, I guess lightning struck or something. And I was fortunate that way. And then I went on to do a bunch of good stuff. So in those days, they were called independent films, low budgets that they were.

Yes, I know. Like independent of 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. Maybe, but, you know, anyway, so I was keeping busy in that whole world. That's for sure. Right. Right.

And so we go through that sort of working actors, staying busy, all that stuff. And then, I mean, do we jump? Will, I don't want to, I don't want to jump your timeline on your questions here. But Darren Aronofsky calls. Yeah. Or, or did you find it and call him? Which is the whale? Yes.

A lot, a lot, a lot happened. And so I was, I was in the middle of a lot of stuff 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 who carries bag. Yeah. I was really intimidated when I first met him in his offices in Chinatown. That was in January of 2020. But he, and he, he was really forthcoming about the party. 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, he's been overeating. He's been harming himself that way.

And whether he means to or not is, you know, up for interpretation and he has a strained relationship with his daughter and he has an epiphany that he, if he doesn't reconnect it's 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 was said, we have to do it with prosthetics. And he'd worked with Adrian Moreau several times previously.

It was fantastic. So good at his job. Was it a makeup artist? Yes. Yeah. 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 of Fallen Angels and they were like these shorts that were being directed. Anyway, but he called up to play the bag man in No Sudden Move with Don Cheadle. Yeah. Really great cast.

And Darren texted me and he sent this research material and 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? He's like, yes, you did. Now get the word. Great.

And from there 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, you want to know what they're up to. They take, they take fair creative risks.

And you know, I guess financial ones too, but it's not my wheelhouse, but yes, they're 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 it's sleeping a lot. Yeah. But we started. We got going. We worked under, everyone worked under existential threat. Will there be a tomorrow?

Right. We were all the same way. And 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 New Horizons in 2012 where Darren first saw it and then optioned it from him. Oh, wow. And they developed it for 10 years. Oh, wow. And Sam Hunter adapted his own stage play for the screen also. First time.

I mean, not bad. That's his first, first, first, seriously. Wow. Wow. Wow. Like, wow. You know, talent doesn't, doesn't go away. I guess they say.

No. Well, you know, that, that one clip of you. Sometimes it never shows up at all. Go ahead, John. 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, of the whale.

And you had this unex, what seemed like an unexpected standing ovation. And it, you got so emotional and 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. That was, that's a core memory for me now. What I was looking at is 1200 Italians. If you don't see, you're all screaming and crying.

So it's kind of infectious. I think everyone has to 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. 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. And consequently homebound, right? Correct. 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, I can put on X number of these pounds practically. And then we kind of augment with the, with the, with the makeup. How did that, 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. I, the research that he'd sent was documentary footage was interviews with, you know, I mean, the point is, is the man is 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, 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? Well, four hours of makeup in the morning, 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 could sleep when you're dead, you know, and, and, and besides Adrian was there an hour before and an hour after. So, you know, I'm not going to cry anyone in any tears, but, um, yeah, it was an extensive process to just be patient, be a patient, patient, but, but meeting him halfway meant that you had to, 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 that 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 in and he held an iPad up to me in my driveway, you know, 15 feet away from each other.

And that data went to, went to Montreal and Adrian created Charlie virtually, which is important because the body itself becomes a texture map. You 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, 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 pretty sure like the future of how we're going to

be doing prosthetics this point forward. I mean, and it's, it's seamless. It's seamless. I mean, I had been, I did a movie called bedazzled a Harold Ramis picture and I, 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's fantastic. He's since retired. He's a great guy.

And you can, you can still see like, you know, it looks more handmade. You know, you, you suspend your disbelief to, 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 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 it. That doesn't care. That doesn't care.

That doesn't care. No, it doesn't. I mean, but seriously, otherwise it was, you know, analog, an actor. Well, I think that there are ways that you do, I certainly as actors and Jason, you can probably speak to this. I mean, all the, all the surgery that you've had, do you find that that is just kind of like, like more permanent makeup? Is that what you look at?

It's more permanent, but Derry, we do have to do a lot of digital removals of some of the staples. But it cuts down time in the chair. Yes. Wait, Brendan, let me ask you, let me ask you questions. 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, where do you, what do you feel about it?

How is your relationship with show business now in terms of like, do you find, did you, do you find yourself like having conflicting feelings about it, but the way that the way that the business works and all that stuff, how it's changed or how it's changed or how you, have you learned stuff or do you feel, are you cynical or are you, I don't know? I've, I've been through many iterations of the business. I mean, I, I white knuckled it for 20 years or so. And you know, I saw a lot of things, well, did the advent of everything kind of going to horse and cart to internal combustion engine around 2009 with, with a movie that I did,

which was the beta for avatar. It was called journey to center of the earth 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. I mean, anything, anything is possible and it up 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, you have to differentiate yourself, you have to, you have to get back to storytelling. I think, you know, just hold the bells and whistles are great and I love that stuff. I really do. But 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, 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 what, you know, I'll, I'll, 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, we, we talked about it the other night.

You and I talked about it. Yeah. We talked about how, how hard it would be, Sean and I were both saying, God, be so hard starting as an actor right now. Yeah. Sorry guys. That's all good. You're fired.

Peewee. We're gonna get Peewee back. Hey. Poor dog just lost his job. But we were talking about the idea of right, Sean, that it would be so hard if you were starting today as an actor, you know, you, you get a job, uh, you know, on a, on a streamer or, or a network or something and, you know, nothing goes, it doesn't seem like it. Maybe it does, but nothing goes for a hundred 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 another gig in between these short, short, short runs and they seem to be getting shorter and shorter. But my point is, and my question is, does any of that, do you do this, um, do you do it? 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, they broke up the threesome. They just, they singled him out and said, no, he's clearly the best at interviewing and you got a front row seat as to why. So check this out, Brendan, Sean got my vote, which is 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 not the three of us. But 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, and I just don't know, but is any of you want to be, how many times have you said that you like, forgive

me if you are into this, but go ahead, no, but I do want to know, does any of those other facets 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. I'm going to stay in my lane for now. I mean, I also, I'm spectacularly lazy and somewhat of a leadite 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 explore.

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, is 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 to 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, you know, 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 pros and cons. For whatever's next, guys, it's an open road. You just want to stay working, yeah? But in features. 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. Yeah, for sure. And is the draw, sorry, is the draw because you have a real excitement to morph into characters 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 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, you know, those big franchise pieces. I loved it. Those really, I mean, it's just becoming apparent. Really I mean, the gravity of it is really 20 whatever years later is just awakening with me now. You'd like to do another sequel to the mummy. Oh, yeah.

Are we making news right now? Yeah, that's. We've got it. I've been screaming this from the rooftops for 10 years. Give us something new. Give us something fresh. I think I heard you say you want to do school ties to what that would be hard to say. What about the daddy?

What about the daddy to the mummy and then the daddy, just keep up. Okay. We're doing loose word association is just it's not even clever and or witty. But you'd like to get into some sort of a franchise and potentially the mummy. Bring it back. Oh my God. You know what I mean? I mean, I know.

Did he cruise jump in there for a minute? Didn't Tom Cruise? Oh, yes. Yeah, he did. Yeah. But you like you like what you're saying is you like you like that you like those big, huge, fun 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 and it's everything I'm for because I have three kids, 16, 18 and 20. Wow. So many of these choices to I'll admit to some personal vanity to try and impress them, but they're kids and I learned that they like, no, I want to watch Power Rangers. You're boring.

Yeah. So, you know, that bubble got burst. But the point is I, 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. Yeah, I could not have been impressed upon me earlier 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 ideally do both as you, as you were, as you were doing. It worked. Yeah. 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. So good. 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, Sean. I mean, let's be honest. No, that's it. That's not what he's famous for. Yeah. No, that's it. He may have famously said, but he's not famous. Are you looking at me?

Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me? You must be talking to me. Are you talking to me? Hey, a little bit, a little bit, you know, a little bit. Yeah, good. Well. Remember a little bit. Yeah, no good.

You guys have seen my, you guys have seen my De Niro, right? Oh, will you give us some more? Yeah. No, you know, I'm not going to do a lot, but I might give you a little bit, a little bit. 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, your kids have any, uh, uh, I was going to ask the same thing. I was going to say the same thing. Yes. They're creative. Yeah. Yes. My, my, my youngest picked up a guitar and he can seriously shred.

I'm like, wow. And he is studying music theory. He's only 16. So, wow. That's Leland. And, um, hold in 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, so it's happy days now. And my oldest son is, 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 always was. And he's just the manifestation of love that keeps us all together and really just gives me the understanding of 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 live in Greenwich with their mom and, um, they're always over here. I have, 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. There is, there is an age there where they, they, they, they really learn their instrument. I've got, 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 to the emergency room yet? Well, uh, oh God, might have. Yeah.

Yeah. Right. You have. Oh God. Oh yeah. In my family, we had to have a punch card, you know, three get one free, right? Stitches. Yeah.

Just once for me with, uh, with Franny, but, uh, yeah, with boys out here, it's, it's annual. Right. So Archie, the Archie Enable, the, this is a lot of, a lot of stitches, but, but how I should be pointing out, they're both of them are snitches and I had warned them. I had warned them because everybody knows. Listen to that. Well, I just know, they know that snitches get stitches and that, that's a, that's another

thing you learned at Juliette, right? Well, Brendan has also been to jail. Yeah. 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 and, uh, but now it's, uh, it's, it's flamed up again then, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, and it, it's fell in because he and Scotty was cooking up a big pot of, uh, pork and beans. Right. And it fell in. A big, sloppy pot of pork and beans. He gave it a little kick, 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. It doesn't count. I mean, a big pot of beans and then you slice up some hot dogs and, and toss them in. 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 guys, it's so fun getting

to know you and, and it's, it's so. Very happy for you, man. It's really such a great story to, to see you and 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 of all, you look exactly the same. And you do look exactly the same as you did 20 years ago. You look terrific.

You got a great outlook on life and it's just what a joy to have you, man. Thanks guys. Yeah. Yeah. I'm really happy to be your guest. Thank you. And 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 in 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 of just shades of gray. How is, do you remember that? I only work in black and sometimes, sometimes gray. I think that's what the quote, very dark shades of gray, you know what?

It's funny that, that, that it's funny you say that, Brandon. So this morning, all four boys were having breakfast cause I have three sons and a step son and they're having breakfast and Denny, my two and a half year old, he's drinking his milk out of a cup. It's got Superman on it and he looks at it and he looks up at me and goes, that you data. 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, say hi to your son for me from Lego Batman and we'll, we'll, we'll see you. I'm sure I don't know when this airs, but I, I, and early, hopefully congratulations on the Oscar. Yes.

Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right, pal. Thanks pal. You too. Thanks pal. You too.

Thanks. Bye, Brandon. Bye, buddy. How great. What, you know, you said it will. There's a story there and, you know, it's, there's too many bad stories in this world and in this business that is, that is a real piece of good news right there. It really is.

And also like it's such a story, like if you, you know, for actors, wherever you are in your career, if, if it's the thing you love to do and it just doesn't have to be acting, you just keep doing it. It doesn't like you come and go, everything abs and flows and accept with Chinese food, you know, just because it tastes good doesn't mean you need to finish it. Oh, 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, we weren't wondering. Hey, the chin chin on Sunset's still open. I'm like, 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 found one, there's no, you know what I mean? I'm so happy I texted you both. In the toothless community, don't come after me for that, but I just, they're pretty big. But listen, you know, look, I, again, I don't know when this is going to air, but I'm sure

the Oscar goes too, right? I mean, I think so. That performance is incredible. He'll have a very good seat at a minimum there at the ceremony. It is. It is true. I used 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, sometimes the, the stars align and the world catches up with you and sometimes it doesn't. You just keep going. And then you just keep going. Remember John Travolta when Quentin Tarantino put him in Pulp Fiction was like, great, welcome. Yeah. Well, that's why I wanted to say it.

Because I hate calling it a comeback because, 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 process. Yeah. It's just a high, yeah. It's just matters how high. And then every once, so that happens, or if you're an actor and it's not working out,

you move towards directing because people aren't responding and you're acting anymore. Right. That's a shot. That's a shot of me shot. Here he comes. Here he comes. Because people watch you, they're like, no, enough, we can't see it any more. We can't see it any more.

Get behind the camera now. Wait, Will, when you guys were talking about the places you were in, in Canada, could you get, could you get there like by driving or like walking or is there like, could you, like, is there another way you get there? Don't go high. Don't go high. By riding a. Bye.

Will's gone high. Will's gone high. You can't do it without going high, right? A piece of gold. Or maybe by a biplane. Or. I was a nice fizzle. You're really good.

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