Brendan Fraser almost died while filming The Mummy, and his near-death experience is part of a frightening list of other Hollywood production close calls. The Mummy released in 1999 to relatively mixed reviews, but the swashbuckling action adventure's great commercial success led to two sequels and a surprising number of The Scorpion King spinoff films. Brendan Fraser's performance as protagonist Rick O'Connell is still the beloved actor's most iconic role — though it's also true that Hollywood failed Brendan Fraser for years afterward. In a terrible twist, even The Mummy almost failed Fraser by coming dangerously close to ending both his career and his life.
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Broadly speaking, The Mummy's production was inundated with adverse filming conditions. Much of the movie was filmed in Morocco and in the scorching heat of the Sahara. Every two hours, cast and crew members were required to consume a custom concoction conjured up by the production's medical team to avoid dehydration. Sandstorms and venomous wildlife were also chronic issues; there were multiple instances where people had to be airlifted to receive treatment after getting bit or stung. In another incident, Brendan Fraser's own life was literally up in the air at one point.
The crown jewel of The Mummy franchise was filming an early scene where Rick O'Connell is temporarily hanged before being saved by Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz). Shooting that scene proved to be nearly fatal for the former George of the Jungle actor due to careless mistakes and miscommunication. Unfortunately, while technological and safety advancements have progressively made film productions safer since the late 1990s, there are still plenty of relatively recent examples of actors getting seriously injured or even nearly dying while making a movie.
Brendan Fraser Almost Choked To Death While Filming The Mummy
Brendan Fraser has spoken openly about his hanging scene in The Mummy several times in the years following the movie's release. In 2019, Entertainment Weekly interviewed Fraser for The Mummy's 20th anniversary, and Fraser said he "did get fully choked-out" while filming that harrowing scene. Saying that wasn't part of The Mummy's original script would be an understatement. A stuntman was used for the scene's wide shots, but Fraser himself had to be put in the noose for closeups. The first take went okay, but director Stephen Sommer wanted to do a second take with a little more rope tension. That's when the stuntman made the rope a little too tense, and Fraser also made the mistake of inadvertently asphyxiating himself because he wanted to "sell it." He sold it to the extent that he passed out and regained consciousness while an EMT was saying his name.
Accidents can happen in any workplace environment, and Hollywood is no exception. The best accidents are happy ones like Mad Max 2's coolest stunt, but movie productions have also dealt with more serious incidents ranging from Leonardo DiCaprio's infamous bloody hand in Django Unchained to Brandon Lee's death while filming The Crow. Brendan Fraser's situation while making The Mummy resides in the very specific category of onscreen portrayals of death or near-death that almost became deaths in real life. Isla Fisher almost drowned while filming a Now You See Me scene where her character almost drowns; her panicked reaction was initially interpreted as very inspired acting for three minutes until the stunt coordinator finally realized something was wrong.
It's incredible that Brendan Fraser is now finally experiencing a career comeback. Fraser's transformation in The Whale is already generating awards buzz. However, perhaps even his The Whale transformation can't rival the way Brendan Fraser was transformed during that hanging scene in The Mummy.