Brendan Fraser took a break from his Oscar press tour for “The Whale” to give his fans the surprise of a lifetime at a recent double feature screening of “The Mummy” and “The Mummy Returns” in London. The Prince Charles Cinema screened Fraser’s original two “Mummy” movies on 35mm on Jan. 20, an event that Fraser couldn’t resist the opportunity to show up to himself. Fraser stopped by the event and was met by a big standing ovation.
“I am proud to stand before you tonight,” Fraser told the audience. “This is a film that was made in Britain. You should know that! Even the second one, too. Be proud. Thank you for being here.”
“We had no idea what kind of movie we were making when we shot this,” Fraser added. “We didn’t know if it was a drama or a comedy or an action or a horror picture or a romance… all the above. We had no idea until it tested in front of British audiences. Thank you for that.”
Fraser told Variety last year that he wouldn’t close the door on appearing in a fourth “Mummy” movie. “I don’t know how it would work,” he admitted. “But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.”
The last Fraser-starring “Mummy” movie was 2008’s “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Empire.” When Universal rebooted “The Mummy” in 2017, Fraser wasn’t invited back to the party. Instead, it was Tom Cruise who became the franchise’s star. The movie bombed with critics.
“It is hard to make that movie,” Fraser said. “The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn’t see in that film, was fun. That was what was lacking in [Tom Cruise’s] incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. ‘The Mummy’ should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary.”
“I know how difficult it is to pull it off,” Fraser adds. “I tried to do it three times.”
Watch Fraser surprise “The Mummy” screening in the video below.