Brendan Fraser reveals why he turned down Disney's George of the Jungle sequel
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Brendan Fraser could've slipped into his tiny loincloth once again for a George of the Jungle sequel, but the Oscar-buzzed Whale star jokes that Disney wasn't able to pay him enough to do so.
"I think George got a remake, and they built a joke into it that the studio was too cheap to hire me, which wasn't inaccurate," Fraser tells EW when asked about potential sequels to his beloved past projects.
Though Disney didn't respond to EW's request for comment, the 54-year-old says the studio wanted him to reprise his role in a continuation of director Sam Weisman's 1997 blockbuster adaptation of the 1967 animated TV series of the same name.
"I was approached. I can't remember what I was doing at the time, but I felt like I wanted to go do The Quiet American instead with Michael Caine, and shoot the first Western film in Vietnam ever, directed by Phillip Noyce, to tell an infinitely American story," Fraser continues. "I'm always making diverse choices, and, hopefully, that keeps me and an audience interested. With a bit of distance, I think they've all cumulatively led up to the place I'm in now."
Everett Collection Brendan Fraser says Disney approached him about making 'George of the Jungle' sequel.
In Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, Fraser plays Charlie, a reclusive English professor with a compulsive eating disorder, who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter in the final days of his life. Many have hailed Fraser's critically lauded turn in the drama as a comeback for the Mummy franchise star, though he doesn't see it quite the same way.
"Careers go up and down on a valley and peak trajectory, but I believe that it's always in the ascendancy. I've never been that far away, is the short answer, and the [philosophical] answer is, really, was I away, or was everyone away from me? I'll give you the answer: It doesn't matter," he explains, adding that, in addition to starring in DC's Doom Patrol series and Showtime's The Affair, he's kept himself busy with projects that interest him on a personal level. "What's important is that, either by design or accident, the amount of time it took for me to arrive at the place where I could faithfully play Charlie with the dignity, authenticity, and honesty that it demands, may not have been at my disposal had I not gone on that journey."
The Whale opens in limited theatrical release on Friday. Watch EW's full interview with Fraser above.
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