To this day, The Mummy is one of Brendan Fraser’s most memorable films. The role cemented his status as the new Hollywood’s adventure faceHe became one of the most sought-after actors in the early ’00s before making an Oscar-winning comeback in 2022 with The Whale.
However, an accident on the set of The Mummy almost put a stop to his success.
Brendan Fraser was strangled unconscious during filming of The Mummy
In the first scene of Brendan Fraser in The Mummyhis character Rick O’Connel is to be hanged as a member of the French Foreign Legion. Luckily for Rick, his neck does not break when the hatch beneath his feet opens and Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) is able to negotiate his release.
This scene almost resulted in not only Rick’s death, but also that of Brendan Fraser. During an appearance on the Kelly Clarkson Show, he told what happened from his perspective. According to him, he was standing on his tiptoes with the rope around his neck, but director Stephen Sommers was simply not convinced by the presentation.
Hey, it doesn’t really look like you’re suffocating.
He asked the actor to sell the scene properly and Brendan thought one more take would be fine.
The camera panned around and I stood on tiptoe and the guy above me pulled the rope even higher. I was hanging on my toes. I had nowhere to go but down. So he pulled up the rope and I went down.
Shortly afterwards, he was everything went black and Fraser fainted.
The next thing I knew, my elbow was in my ear, everything was upside down, I had gravel between my teeth, and everyone was quiet.
After the scene, a stunt coordinator came to him and congratulated him on being able to “in the club” beHe was referring to Mel Gibson, who, according to The Independent, almost died on the set of Braveheart. And he wasn’t the only one.
Over the years, there have been a number of near-deaths of now famous Hollywood stars. The fact that Brendan Fraser continued filming after this accident gave us a fantastic film adventure.