Brendan Fraser remembered a terrifying ordeal while working on the set of the 1999 action-adventure flick, “The Mummy.”
Fraser, 54, starred as American adventurer Rick O’Connell in the Stephen Sommers movie, which spawned multiple sequels and spinoffs.
“Was this the one where you almost died?” Kelly Clarkson asked Fraser on her self-titled talk show.
Fraser, who is up for an Oscar for his role in “The Whale,” then reenacted a scene in which a rope was tied around his neck after he was captured by locals.
“I was standing on my toes like this, with the rope, and you only got so far to go,” he explained.
“And Steve ran over, and he said, ‘Hey, it doesn’t really look like you’re choking — can you sell it?’ And I was like, ‘All right, fine.’ So I thought, ‘One more take, man.’
BRENDAN FRASER REACTS TO OSCAR NOMINATION FOR ‘THE WHALE’: ‘CHANGED MY LIFE’
“And the camera swooped around, and I went up on the toes, and the guy holding the rope above me, he pulled it up a little higher, and I was stuck on my toes — I had nowhere to go but down.”
Fraser remembered being pulled in multiple directions, “and then the next thing I knew, my elbow was in my ear, the world was sideways. There was gravel in my teeth and everyone was really quiet.
“And there was a stunt guy, the coordinator was there, and he was going, ‘Brendan, Brendan wake up.’” Fraser recalled coming back to consciousness.
Fraser, who is up for an Oscar for his role in “The Whale,” then reenacted a scene in which a rope was tied around his neck after he was captured by locals.
“I was standing on my toes like this, with the rope, and you only got so far to go,” he explained.
“And Steve ran over, and he said, ‘Hey, it doesn’t really look like you’re choking — can you sell it?’ And I was like, ‘All right, fine.’ So I thought, ‘One more take, man.’
BRENDAN FRASER REACTS TO OSCAR NOMINATION FOR ‘THE WHALE’: ‘CHANGED MY LIFE’
“And the camera swooped around, and I went up on the toes, and the guy holding the rope above me, he pulled it up a little higher, and I was stuck on my toes — I had nowhere to go but down.”
Fraser remembered being pulled in multiple directions, “and then the next thing I knew, my elbow was in my ear, the world was sideways. There was gravel in my teeth and everyone was really quiet.
“And there was a stunt guy, the coordinator was there, and he was going, ‘Brendan, Brendan wake up.’” Fraser recalled coming back to consciousness.
Fraser was in and out of the hospital for seven years due to various surgeries, including a partial knee replacement, spinal work, back surgeries and vocal cord repairs.
“I needed a laminectomy (spine surgery) and the lumbar didn’t take, so they had to do it again a year later,” he said.
Fraser recently told Variety he’d be interested in revisiting the Rick O’Connell character for “The Mummy” franchise if someone “came up with the right concept.”
“It is hard to make that movie,” Fraser noted. “The ingredient that we had going for our ‘Mummy,’ which I didn’t see in the new one, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. ‘The Mummy’ should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary.”