Brendan Fraser Could’ve Died Twice on The Mummy Set (But No One Believes Him)

Though Brendan Fraser has been claiming that his pretty much authentic experience on The Mummy set back in 1999 almost cost him his life, the franchise’ director doesn’t seem to believe in a big drama.

Throughout several years of its run, The Mummy has indeed proved that some dangers faced by its characters in the movies also got to be a big challenge for actors, and the franchise’s lead was the most frequent one to get trapped.

The story that has already become a true legend among The Mummy’s fans owes its existence to the hanging scene in the first film. The scene itself was supposed to show Brendan Fraser’s Rick being hanged, but the actor seems to have taken it way too seriously.

According to Fraser, he really wanted to make it all look real, so he “sort of took a few deep breaths, and kind of bared down.”

To his shock, he realized he was standing on the balls of his feet and the rope was gradually going up. Fraser then admitted that he’d blacked out after an attempt to bring more life to the scene.

However fascinating the actor’s brave artistic sacrifice would sound, The Mummy’s director Stephen Sommers has a very different view. Sommers later explained that Fraser had dramatized the whole moment a lot and nothing would’ve ever threatened his life as the whole crew was ready to get him out of that rope as soon as they felt something was wrong.

According to the director, the actor’s ambitious plans for the scene eventually made him put the rope around his neck too tight without being aware that the rope would cut off his blood flow which would later lead to him losing consciousness.

Though Brendan Fraser had quite a lucky escape from that scary situation, it wasn’t the last time he would come close to death during shooting. The actor shared yet another story where he was almost confronted by a very dangerous snake.

As the film production was set in Egypt, it comes with no surprise that the crew and cast had to deal with all kinds of crawler species on a daily basis. According to Fraser, he was repeatedly warned about a dangerous snake with yellow dots across its body, remembering that he could be easily left with no limbs after encountering the species.

The actor then clarified that he did meet the snake that found him “pissing down a rock,” but he got a lucky escape once again.

Sources: There’s Something About Movies, EW