It had been a long time since American actor Brendan Fraser had felt such enthusiasm around his person. On September 4, 2022, the artist returned to center stage in Darren Aronofsky’s new film, The Whale.

A drama in which Brenden Fraser plays the main role of Charlie alongside Samantha Morton or Ty Simpkins. After the broadcast of the feature film on the occasion of the 79th edition of the Venice Film Festival, the actor received a standing ovation. In tears, he had greeted the crowd who continued to pay tribute to him for six long minutes. It must be said that the Hollywood star of the 1990s had become increasingly rare on film sets.

The oldest will undoubtedly remember his role in George of the Jungle or that of Rick O’Connell in The Mummy trilogy. “His fame will begin around the end of the 1990s and will extend until the 2000s. It was then that he became a kind of young first”, explains Gauthier Jurgensen, film journalist at Satellifax and to continue: “He is an actor who has a duality. He is both an “action hero” and at the same time, he is a “rubber” gentleman. He was both in comic roles and at the same time, he was quite a muscular guy. He has both of those things.”

Unlike the young prodigies of his generation, like Tom Cruise or Leonardo DiCaprio, Brendan Fraser did not become a male icon. “As he always had this comic shift, I think it somewhat prevented him from reaching the status of a sex symbol”, explains the journalist.

But why did the actor gradually move away from the world of cinema? As Gauthier Jurgensen reminds us, Brendan Fraser returned to the limelight in 2004 in the feature film Collision “which received the Oscar for best picture”. Four years later, the actor returned in the third installment of The Mummy called The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. A return to the big screen that didn’t hurt.

“Injured, he was tired of playing the rubber man. He had the feeling that he was going to lose his health. He voluntarily stepped back, he does not hide it not at all. He has also turned to other types of roles. It’s a little surprising because, when an actor who is forty years old and who has always been the “handsome” daredevil wants to do something else thing, there is a downtime for Hollywood which does not know very well how to use it”, he explains to us.

More than 20 years after having met with success, Brendan Fraser could once again be talked about soon. According to our colleagues from Variety, he could even be in the running for the Oscar for best actor against Austin Butler, interpreter of Elvis Presley in the eponymous biopic.