It’s been over 20 years since one of Brendan Fraser’s hit movies, The Mummy Returns, helped launch Dwayne Johnson’s movie career. And recently, the actor took time to praise Fraser’s big comeback movie, The Whale. Fraser recently made headlines over the holiday weekend for getting emotional during a six-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival for his upcoming film The Whale from director Darren Aronofsky.
A video from the Film Festival of Fraser getting the standing ovation is getting viral on social media, and The Rock took to his Twitter and shared a video while commenting on how he helped start his movie career. While sharing the video, the wrestler turned actor penned, “Man this makes me so happy to see this beautiful ovation for Brendan.” Dwayne The Rock Johnson continues, “He supported me coming into his Mummy Returns franchise for my first ever role, which kicked off my Hollywood career. Rooting for all your success brother and congrats to my bud Darren Aronofsky.”
For the unversed, Johnson’s first breakthrough movie role was 2001’s The Mummy Returns, where he played The Scorpion King, while he was still best known as the WWE wrestler The Rock. The Mummy Returns was a follow-up to Fraser and Rachel Weisz’s 1999 blockbuster The Mummy, which garnered an impressive $415.9 million worldwide from an $80 million budget. The success of The Mummy Returns lead to Johnson’s own spin-off, The Scorpion King, which hit theatres in April 2002.
The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King bring some more hit films under The Rock’s belt, including, The Rundown, Walking Tall, Be Cool, Race to Witch Mountain and The Other Guys before breaking out as Luke Hobbs in 2011’s Fast Five, which started his ascent into superstardom. However, Fraser didn’t enjoy the same kind of rise as Johnson, though he has worked consistently since the early 20th century.
Later, Fraser started focusing more on small screen roles over the past few years with Texas Rising, The Affair, Trust and Professionals, while also voicing Robotman in Doom Patrol. Meanwhile, his upcoming film, The Whale follows Fraser as a reclusive English teacher with severe obesity who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter, played by Sadie Sink. The Whale is scheduled to release in theatres on December 9, and also stars Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins and Samantha Morton.
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