Brendan Fraser’s Hollywood Comeback Has Dwayne Johnson Sharing Mummy Memories In Sweet Post

After years out of the spotlight, Brendan Fraser is not only back, but he’s back in a big way. Fraser is getting rave reviews and standing ovations for his role in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, and one of the people who is glad to see Fraser getting his due is Dwayne Johnson, who credits Fraser with helping him launch his own career in Hollywood.

Today Dwayne Johnson is the biggest movie star in the world but 20 years ago he was only the biggest star in professional wrestling, trying to make his name in movies. His big break came in The Mummy Returns, which starred Brendan Fraser, and in a recent Twitter post The Rock says Fraser supported his joining the Mummy franchise, which is what started it all for him. 

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Dwayne Johnson’s role in The Mummy Returns is small but famous for a number of reasons. And not all of them great. Johnson plays The Scorpion King, and is only seen, in a human form, in a short prologue at the beginning of the film. The character returns at the end for a big final battle, which includes some epically terrible CGI.

While The Rock’s role is small, it clearly impressed a lot of people. It earned a spinoff movie of its own, Dwayne Johnson’s first starring role in a franchise, and the man would never look back. It’s likely Dwayne Johnson would have found another route to stardom had he never appeared in The Mummy Returns, but he might not be in quite the same place he is today had it not started there. 

Brendan Fraser has had a very different path through Hollywood in the last couple of decades. Four years ago Fraser accused a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association of groping him back in 2003, and it’s difficult to not notice that the incident coincided with seeing his career as a major Hollywood leading man begin to slow. The man in question, Phil Berk, was removed by the HFPA in 2021 for a separate incident.

Brendan Fraser also had to deal with some health issues which kept him out of action for some time. While Fraser was never entirely out of work, he worked in smaller roles and on smaller films before landing one of the roles in HBO Max’s Doom Patrol

Now, however, with Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, Fraser is receiving some of the best notices of his entire career. Seeing him again has apparently reminded fans from his Mummy days how much they loved the actor, and there are a lot of people rooting for Fraser’s success. The Rock is just the most famous among them.  

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.