Brendan Fraser was a familiar face on our screens for decades, beloved for his roles in The Mummy, George of the Jungle and Bedazzled, the actor was booked and busy before disappearing from Hollywood blockbusters altogether.
SEE: Brendan Fraser is unrecognizable after 600lb transformation
In an interview with GQ in 2018, the 53-year-old shared that he suffered years of injuries from the stunts he performed in his various starring roles, which resulted in many surgeries and had a lasting impact.
WATCH: Brendan Fraser was in tears at the Venice Film Festival
"By the time I did the third Mummy picture in China I was put together with tape and ice—just, like, really nerdy and fetishy about ice packs," he told GQ.
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"Screw-cap ice packs and downhill-mountain-biking pads, 'cause they're small and light and they can fit under your clothes. I was building an exoskeleton for myself daily," he said of the filming the 2008 installment of the franchise.
Eventually, all of Brendan's injuries required multiple surgeries: "I needed a laminectomy. And the lumbar didn't take, so they had to do it again a year later."
Brendan Fraser took a step back from him Hollywood roles
He had a partial knee replacement and operations on his back, bolting various compressed spinal pads together.
READ: Why Brendan Fraser’s standing ovation at The Whale premiere was so emotional
He even needed to have his vocal cords repaired and was in and out of hospital for almost seven years.
Brendan Fraser during The Mummy era
The actor returned to the limelight in 2022 following his hiatus, bagging his first leading role in almost a decade – and he certainly looks very different from what his fans are used to seeing.
Brendan underwent a dramatic physical transformation to play a 600lb man in the Darren Aronofsky-directed movie The Whale.
The film sees Brendan play a man "living with obesity" and "struggling to reconnect with his 17-year-old daughter", according to Variety. But Brendan didn't up his calories for the role. Instead, he wore prosthetics in order to achieve the look, according to IndieWire.
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