Emerson Phillips
Brendan Fraser revealed how he nearly died on set while shooting The Mummy, a fantastic flick that was released before Y2K!
Fraser was marking the 20th anniversary of the film when he told the story in an interview with EW, explaining — in pretty great detail — how he nearly choked to death filming a scene.
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Understandably, it was a scene where his character is being hanged.
“I did get fully choked-out.,” he said. “It was scary. Rick is dangling at the end of the rope, and he’s such a tough guy that his neck didn’t snap. We did the wide shot, which was the stuntman going down, and he had a harness on, and it looked great. Then they’ve got to go in [for a close-up]. There was a hangman’s gallows, and there was a hemp rope tied into a noose that was placed around my neck.”
“The first take, I’m doing my best choking acting. Steve says, ‘Can we go for another one and take up the tension on the rope?’ I said, ‘All right, one more take,’” he continued.
“Because a noose around your neck’s going to choke you in the arteries, no matter what. So, the stuntman took up the tension on the rope, and I went up on the balls of my feet, then I guess he took the tension up again, and I’m not a ballerina, I can’t stand on my tip-toes.
“I remember seeing the camera start to pan around, and then it was like a black iris at the end of a silent film,” he said.
“It was like turning down the volume switch on your home stereo, like the Death Star powering down. I regained consciousness and one of the EMTs was saying my name. There was gravel in my ear and that s*** really hurt.”
“The stunt coordinator came over, and he said, ‘Hi! Welcome to the club, bro! Ha ha ha!’ And I was like, “Ha ha, funny? Ha ha?’ Like, What the hell? I want to go home! Steven – he and I disagree – but I think he was trying to go, ‘Oh, that wacky Brendan, acting up a storm again!’, or something like that. I was like, ‘Hey, you guys think what you need to, but I’m done for the day.’”
