Brendan Fraser Is Open to Reprising The Mummy Role — and Says Tom Cruise's 2017 Reboot Lacked 'Fun'

Chiabella James/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock; Keith Hamshere/Alphaville/Imohotep Prod/Kobal/Shutterstock Tom Cruise in The Mummy (2017); Brendan Fraser in The Mummy (1999)

Brendan Fraser would be down to reprise his role as adventurer Rick O'Connell again, should The Mummy ever have another reboot.

While he doesn't "know how it would work," per se, the 53-year-old actor told Variety in a new cover story alongside his The Whale director Darren Aronofsky that he would "be open to it, if someone came up with the right conceit."

Touching on the reboot of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise, Fraser admitted that "it is hard to make that movie." He also said Cruise's 2017 version "was lacking" the "fun" of his trilogy, which starred Fraser alongside Rachel Weisz in the first two films: 1999's The Mummy and 2001's The Mummy Returns. (The third film in the series, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, came out in 2008, and starred Fraser with Maria Bello)

"It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie," Fraser said of the 2017 film. "The Mummy should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary."

"I know how difficult it is to pull it off," he added. "I tried to do it three times."

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Benedict Evans for Variety Brendan Fraser and Darren Aronofsky for Variety

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Earlier this year, Alex Kurtzman, who directed the 2017 movie, revealed that he sees the reboot of the hit action franchise as the "biggest failure of my life, both personally and professionally."

"I tend to subscribe to the point of view that you learn nothing from your successes, and you learn everything from your failures," Kurtzman, 49, said during an appearance on The Playlist's Bingeworthy podcast. "There's about a million things I regret about it, but it also gave me so many gifts that are inexpressibly beautiful."

The film, which critics panned and some called "dead on arrival" when it hit theaters, reportedly cost Universal Studios close to $95 million. IndieWire called it the "worst Tom Cruise movie ever."

Looking back on the production process in the interview, Kurtzman emphasized just how young and new he was to the business of directing at the time he made The Mummy and how much he has grown since.

"I didn't become a director until I made that movie, and it wasn't because it was well directed — it was because it wasn't," the filmmaker said. "I would not have understood many of the things that I now understand about what it means to be a director had I not gone through that experience."

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Fraser, meanwhile, is getting major recognition as of late for what is being considered a comeback performance in The Whale, for which he was most recently honored with a 5-minute standing ovation at the London Film Festival.

The actor went onstage as the credits rolled for the movie screening on Tuesday and took a bow, causing the audience to cheer even louder. He was later joined by Aronofsky and screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter.

Though he largely retreated from Hollywood in recent years after a string of high-profile roles in the '90s and early to mid 2000s, Fraser told Variety he "was never that far away."

"You can't get rid of me that easy. But I'm glad to have a job," he added, joking, "I'm still expecting somebody to walk over to me, hand me a dish towel and say, 'Fraser, get back in the kitchen.' "

Fraser also said the standing ovation he received last month at the Venice International Film Festival "felt so affirming," recalling, "I was emotional because it was acknowledgment that what we did is making an impact. And that kind of response feels completely new in my professional life."