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January 2010 

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Interview: Brendan Fraser
A Different Kind of Action Hero

Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford are known for playing iconic action heroes. In the real-life inspired Extraordinary Measures they play heroes again, but this time the action doesn’t involve finding ancient artifacts or a golden idol. Here, Fraser explains, taking action means finding the cure for a disease that’s killing his character’s kids


By Ingrid Randoja

A few years back when the Superman franchise was preparing for its reboot, Brendan Fraser was approached to play the lead.

 

And while that didn’t work out for the 41-year-old star, it can be argued that he’s found his Superman role in Extraordinary Measures, a film based on the real-life heroics of John Crowley, a father whose two kids — Megan and Patrick — suffer from the debilitating and deadly Pompe disease, a rare neuromuscular disorder that lays waste to muscles and usually leads to death before a child’s 10th birthday.

 

Desperate to save his kids, Crowley quits his job and teams up with a brilliant researcher (played by Harrison Ford) to start a biotech company dedicated to finding a cure for the disease.

 

Fraser was in Los Angeles when we chatted about how the divorced father of three sons relates to his character’s struggles, and how this star of the Mummy movies felt about acting alongside one of his own heroes, Indiana Jones himself, Mr. Harrison Ford.

 

Fraser with on-screen wife Keri Russell

What was your initial reaction after reading the script?

“It was one of excitement because Harrison was attached to it, and there’s no small measure of hero worship involved when it comes to Harrison. And the motivating factor for me was that I am a parent of three small boys, my oldest being seven years old, and while they are not challenged with Pompe disease, you don’t need to have that in order to identify with wanting to do what’s best for your kids, and stopping at nothing to do so.”


And John Crowley took extreme measures to save his kids in starting his own research company.

“John is a remarkable individual who just would not stop until he got the results. What does it take? Well, a lot of elbow grease, faith in what you’re doing and sometimes right time, right place luck. Also, making some choices that require you to bend professional, ethical rules, but nothing at the expense of morals. John is not that kind of individual.”

    

Did you go home after filming and give the kids an extra hug?

“And a kiss, looked at their pictures, wept a bit and tucked them in...twice. Of course, the answer is absolutely.”


Did you feel extra pressure playing a real person, one who could show up on set at any time?

“John and I are so different, I am taller than him, our bodies types are different, we really couldn’t be much more different. The important thing is that you get the point across, and it’s necessary to do an amalgamation of a character, otherwise you are just doing an impression or something like that. The character Harrison plays is a compilation of several different scientists.”


You’ve spoken of your admiration for Harrison Ford. I read that you went to see Indiana Jones in Leicester Square in London six times when you were a kid.

“That was Star Wars. I went to see Indiana Jones somewhere else, like 19 times. Even my five-year-old is an aficionado.”


Which one made more of an impression: Star Wars or Indiana Jones?

“I guess I would have to say Star Wars and Han Solo, because that was the picture that came out first, that was the one that inspired generations of kids. That character, Han Solo, planted a seed in me, whether I knew it or not — and I did not — that hey, I want to do that too. I want to be able to tell a story that way even though it was just intangible, it was just impossible to think as a child that I could do that.”


What’s it like to play against Harrison the actor?

"Thrilling. Thrilling. He plays a grouchy curmudgeon, that’s the character, but that’s not the guy I met, he’s one of the nicest people I’ve met. I feel as if I’ve professionally earned another acting stripe.”

 

You can add him to your list of co-stars that includes Michael Caine and Ian McKellen.

“Yeah, these are actor’s actors and they definitely influenced me. And that was a motivating factor with Harrison, why I wanted to do [the movie], because my 41st birthday is in December and I’m less and less interested in ‘Gee, I gotta make it, I gotta gotta,’ like I was in my 20s. I survived those bumpy years when your brain is wiring itself neurologically to ‘Who am I going to be?’ ‘What am I going to do with my life?’ I have to remember the fundamentals of why I chose to do this, and who I want to work with.”


You’ve also talked about fear, and needing to be a little afraid each and every time out.

“You need to be. ‘Go towards the fear,’ we were told when I trained — and it sounds slightly absurd when you say it out loud — but that should be applied to an actor’s career, creatively speaking. Those aren’t unwise words with which to comport yourself.”


I’ve seen some of your photographs, they’re wonderful. Are you keeping up with your photography?

“I am hanging onto my 35 mm like an M6 — you’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead knuckles. But the reality is that now everything is digital...it’s the difference between taking one shot and getting it, and taking many of them, sort of spraying shots, and hoping that there’s something there. Photography, in my humble view, is becoming a lost art. I’ve been to photo shoots with prominent photographers who have assistants working for them who don’t know what an f-stop is. It’s true. They just know you press the automatic button and it goes.

 

“It’s important for me to have something to fall back on in case this acting thing doesn’t work out [laughs]. Really, it’s something to do other than just obsess about my career.”

 

Ingrid Randoja is the deputy editor of Famous.

 


The Real Crowleys

Look for the real John Crowley (centre) in a cameo as one of the businessmen approached by the on-screen John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) and Dr. Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford) who are looking for funding. In this picture, Crowley is surrounded by his family, from left: daughter Megan, wife Aileen (played by Keri Russell in the film) and sons John Jr. and Patrick.

   


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