Brendan Fraser has been making the rounds lately sharing fun stories, and surprising Mummy superfans, all after starring in an acclaimed Oscar-worthy movie. For someone who has been acting for over 30 years, he sure has a ton of fun behind-the-scenes tidbits from the pre-social media days, when privacy still existed.
Fraser recently spoke to Howard Stern about his prolific career, beginning with School Ties, the teen drama that followed Fraser as David, a young Jewish teen who wants to play football in a school of anti-Semitic students. One of those students is Charlie, played by Matt Damon, who learns of David’s religion and challenges him to a fight in the locker room, where the boys wrestle fully nude in the shower.
Of course, with movie magic, it’s easy to assume that they weren’t actually naked, but Stern was surprised to learn that the boys were really bare. When asked if they really shot the scene naked, Fraser said, “Oh yes. Absolutely,” Fraser admitted, much to Stern’s surprise.
School Ties was one of Fraser’s first films, so he added that he wanted to please the director. “It’s scary to do that. When you’re an actor and you’re just starting off, you’re pretty much game for anything. They say ‘jump,’ you say ‘how high?’” he continued.
Despite being naked in the shower with Matt Damon (which sounds like a dream to some, a nightmare to others), Fraser said that he admired how easy it was to shoot. “I appreciated that this isn’t really for wow or a scintillating factor of going, ‘Hey, look at that. Naked people,’” he explained, adding that nudity played an important part in showing the intensity of the moment.
He added, “The point of it was that when Damon’s character says what he says about David, he just reveals who he is. His anti-Semitism and his prejudice is stripped down naked and it’s ugly. And the door is locked and they fight over it like shaved apes that need to be pulled apart because they’ve run out of things to say to one another, and it just turns into an ugly knuckle-dusting fit.” The movie also starred Ben Affleck and Chris O’Donnell.
Fraser’s naked breakout role helped him then land the lead in Airheads, so we all won here! You can check out the rest of the Howard Stern interview here.