Brendan Fraser- Before he Falsely accused me of sexually assaulting him

          June 1994 By Philip Berk

Brendan Fraser may not like the label “teenage sex symbol,”  but he’s not complaining. He knows that if he’s going to make it in Hollywood, it’s going to have to be in teenage movies.

Unlike other young actors of his age (Keanu Reeves for one) he’s smooth, sophisticated, and upwardly mobile. He looks more like a theatre actor than a Hollywood hunk. 

The first time I met him, two years ago, he was waiting for a shuttle at Columbia-Tri Star Studios. I wasn’t  quite sure if he was the kid I had admired in School Ties. He looked older, taller, huskier, not your first choice to play a l7-year old Jewish schoolboy.

Because the film did poorly at the box office, Brendan could get around unnoticed and unrecognized.

Which is no longer true.

At the moment, he’s on a roll,  with three movies opening within months of each other. In With Honors he is the unquestioned star of the film even though Joe Pesci gets bigger billing. Next up he has a comedy Airheads for Fox, and after that the oft postponed The Scout with Albert Brooks.

Although born in Indianapolis, he’s actually a Canadian national. 

His father worked for the Canadian Tourist Bureau which meant he grew up in a number of faraway places such as Holland and Switzerland. Eventually he settled down in Canada and attended Prep School there. 

Although uncomfortable with the process, Brendan answers every question without complaint.

Q: How do you feel about being called a sex symbol and how are you handling it?

A: Gosh I don’t know. Ask me in about six months. I do endeavor to return at least a signed photograph to everyone who writes me. 

Q: What can you say about your family?

A: They live in the Northwest. They’re wonderful, they’re supportive. They always have been, of the choices I’ve made. I have three older brother. We love one another. We’re argumentative, but at the end of the day we’re still a family.

Q: No one in your family was ever in show business. What sparked your interest in acting?

A: I think the seed was planted as a child, when we were living in Holland.  My family would take me across the Channel to see plays in London, and I think it was a production of either Jesus Christ Superstar or Oliver that really got me started.

Q: From that point on you wanted to be an actor?

A: There were of course other motivations. My father worked for Tourism Canada, which meant that every three or four years we were re-posted. Along the way I changed schools so frequently, by the time I arrived in the seventh grade I didn’t know how to work fractions. So not being able to use the left side of my brain as well as I wanted to, I found fulfillment in telling stories and  performing in shows that came my way. When I attended Upper Canada College, I became active in their Little Theatre Club. It was a well endowed school  and I found solace in that after-school activity. After graduating I went to live with my parents in Seattle and there attended the Actors Conservatory at the Cornish College of the Arts. It was a small school of only 500 students so we got to know everyone pretty well.

Q: And after graduation?

A: I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do — Of course I knew what I wanted to do — I interned at a theatre in Seattle called Intiman. The highlight of the season was a visit from a company from Moscow. I even got on stage with them in a rather peculiar costume. My contract with them was up in October, l990, and I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do next. I had a standing invitation to pursue an MFA at S.M.U. in Dallas having auditioned for them earlier in the year. I thought of it as my ace in the hole. They expected me to attend, but instead I came through to Los Angeles and started meeting with agents.

Q: Did you know anyone here?

A: I knew a casting director I had met in Seattle. She was casting for a film to be directed by Taylor Hackford. At the time it was called Blood In, Blood Out. It ended up as Bound by Honor. I read for the part (of a Hispanic) but didn’t get it. What I did get was a parking ticket! But it served as an introduction to several agents. Suddenly I found myself in the enviable position of having to choose an agent. I went with Brian Schwartz then at Triad. Now he’s at Brillstein Grey.

Q: How did you get the lead in School Ties?

A: It was one of the first scripts I saw when I came to Hollywood. When I got hold of it, I didn’t want to finish reading it because it seemed so unattainable. It was a role that I connected with personally. Having gone to a boarding school much like the one depicted in the film, I understood that world. I felt a need to connect. Luckily, through a series of obscure auditions and meetings I somehow managed to see Sherry Lansing (at the time producer of School Ties, later production head at Paramount Pictures.) We met at the Lucille Ball Building on the Paramount  lot and she offered me a screen test.

Q: And the rest is history… Because of the role,  people assume you’re Jewish?

A: Which wouldn’t bother me.

Q: But you’re Irish Catholic, aren’t you?

A: By descent, yeah. But what that film was about was wanting to belong. We all want to be part of the group. We’ve all had our noses pressed up against the glass. David Green was a kid who came from a hard luck town. He couldn’t afford to fail as quarterback of the team. At the beginning his faith wasn’t as important as his aspirations or his pride. He was willing to compromise it, which was a mistake. He sacrificed who he was for being a part of the group. He learned a lesson. The example of prejudice in the film is antisemitism, but that prejudice could be manifested in any number of ways. What the film says is, ‘To thine own self be true.’

Q: At 25 you’re still playing younger characters. Does it bother you?

A: Nobody’s twisting my arm. I’m grateful for the opportunities. As far as playing characters closer to my age, I don’t know if it’s as important as the part itself.”

Q: After School Ties you chose to do Encino Man (California Man) a zany teenage comedy. Did you consider that a good career move?

A:At the time I was hesitant. But I didn’t think it would cast any aspersions on my legitimacy as an actor. One journalist told me it was an excellent calling card for starting off in Hollywood; it showed I had range. I didn’t consider it range. For me it was just making a choice. I did it because after School Ties, I felt a bit heavy in my head. I had re-examined and reaffirmed beliefs I held  about the way we treat one another. I still had residual thoughts left over and rather than shake my fists at the sky, I decided to get back to work and jump into something that was 180 degrees in the opposite direction. I processed the role as that of a clown who hadn’t been in town and was trying to see something with fresh eyes for the first time — someone who was trying to learn the local language the hard way.

Q: In both School Ties and The Scout you play a superb athlete. Were you good in sports?

A: It was required when I was in school. It took me a few years to figure out exactly why. We’re pent up in a classroom all day so it doesn’t hurt to run around in a field and knock each other over. It provides a balance. And it gives young people a purpose, a goal to achieve. Competition exists both on and off the field. There’s competition in life. There’s competition in nature. It’s good for you. I didn’t play too many organized sports, but I threw a javelin for a while. I was pretty good at it. I made the Ontario Finals, and I placed sixth. I’m proud of that fact. It has something to do with the aerodynamics of throwing that implement and watching it fly. I was the one who threw it. It’s a personal best sport. It’s about being better each time you do it. And I like throwing a big spear. 

Q: What’s your private life like? Do you have a girl friend?

A: I have a girl friend, we don’t live together. She’s an actress and we’ve been seeing each other for about a year.

Q: Before School Ties you did a couple of TV movies. Can you remember how much you made for your first part?

A: Actually I can. I made $543. I was happy because I would have made $513 if they hadn’t thrown me into a pinball machine.

Q: Coming to Hollywood from Seattle, did you experience any culture shock?

A: It happened one time in the San Fernando Valley. I was living there and the car I was driving — it was my mom’s; I’ve since given it to my brother –had Washington State license plates. I would  park it in front of my apartment building and two nights a week, I’d come down to the car in the morning and there’d be all these pamphlets thrown all over the street, xeroxed misspellings saying, ‘Go Home. Go Away. You the reason we have water shortages and no parking spaces.’ Which was funny because the big scandal in (the State of) Washington at the time was that everybody from L.A. was buying up real estate in Seattle. I had friends from California when I went to school there, and their California license plates would be be defaced with ‘Yankee go home!’ And I had thought that this was a land with no borders. So that was my culture shock!

Q: No surprises as an actor?

A: They offer you something to drink when you walk in the door. That was a big surprise.

Q: Are you leery about friendships?

A: I’m happy to talk to just about anybody, just so long as they don’t want my money.

Q: Would you like to work again in the theatre?

A: I just came back from the U.K. where I saw everything in London that the West End and the National had to offer. I went there to renew my confidence as an actor, and I can safely say I’ve been saved. I certainly long to return to a stage, but it would have to be in some relatively secluded venue. Not that I’m rusty, but I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t nervous about it.

Q: Are you interested in politics?

A: I’m not much inclined and I’d really be just opening my mouth to change feet if I gave any party platform. Gosh ain’t it a wonderful life!

Q: Do you think travel has broadened you?

A: I think it’s made me a bit more malleable, a little less judgmental. I cast no aspersions. Whenever you point a finger at something there’s three or more pointing right back at you

Q: Are you comfortable with the label Generation X?

A: It seems to be a label that’s been applied by someone who’s not actively of that generation. There’s a great book called The Thirteenth Generation,  which identifies the anthems of every generation. In the 60’s it was ‘Make love not war;’ in the 70’s it was, ‘Sex love, and rock and roll,’ in the 80’s it was, ‘Gimme gimme.’ The 90’s I think is Generation Question Mark. We don’t know.”

Q: Coming from Seattle, is Pearl Jam your favorite group?

A: I’m proud to say that I lived there before it was hip to say I was from there. I endorse the music of Pearl Jam wholeheartedly. I also enjoy classical music, but I can’t name it.

Q: What are you presently reading?

A: I got off a plane yesterday from London and stacked up on a lot of books, printed in Great Britain, I’ve been trying to feed on. Just the major thought food groups: sex, God, death. I’m trying to prepare my brain for my next film project.

Q: Which is? 

A: The Passion of Darkly Noon, to be directed by Philip Ridley who wrote the screenplay for the movie The Krays. It’s a dark fable about redemption through an act of violence. It delves into images of surreality and organized religion. It should be interesting. I’ll be working with Ashley Judd, Piper Laurie, Vigo Mortensen, and Loren Dean.

Q: Are there any directors you’d like to work with?

A: It’s been my aspiration to work with Stanley Kubrick. Wouldn’t everyone say the same?

Q: What was it like working with Joe Pesci (in With Honors)?

A: He’s a very private actor. He never announces his intentions beforehand. I don’t think anyone should, but with him it meant I had to keep myself on the balls of my feet to keep up with him.

Q: Can you give an example?

A: At one point in the film when he attempts to be reunited with his long lost son, he peers into a locket and he sees what appears to be a grainy black and white image, supposedly that of his son in the movie. I happen to know it was actually a picture of a member of his family. It elicited a very special response in him, but he would never talk about. He’s a delightful man, a pleasure to work with, but a very private actor.

Q: Are you comfortable watching yourself on the screen? Is there anything you don’t like?

A: I know it’s unhealthy for an actor to fall in love with his work but in watching a film I’ve appeared in, certainly the first time, I find it difficult to detach myself from my own work. On a second screening I can look at it more objectively.

Q: Do you watch your dailies while working?

A: Never.

Q: At the premiere of With Honors you met Madonna. What did she say to you?

A: She has a very breathy voice, and it was right in my ear, so I didn’t get it all. It had something to do with (my) eyes and lips, something like that. She was very sweet. I met her again on the dance floor. She was dancing with the director Alek Keshishian. She wrote the song for the film for which I am very grateful.

Q: Is she one of your favorites?

A: Let’s say, I like a Madonna tune just as much as the next guy.

And with that diplomatic answer he ended the interview.

NEXT WEEK: THE TRUTH ABOUT FRASER’S ACCUSATION