Actor Brendan Fraser, who most recently donned a fat suit for his role in “The Whale,” revealed during a recent interview just how far he had gone in the past to physically prepare for a part in a movie.
Fraser, speaking with actor and comedian Adam Sandler for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, said that his diet before and during filming for his 1997 comedy “George of the Jungle” was so severe that he was always hungry — and that he had once physically attacked an ATM because he couldn’t remember his PIN number to withdraw cash.
“You went on to do so many — you went on, first of all, to leave ‘Airheads’ and then get very jacked for George of the Jungle,'” Sandler said, complaining that Fraser looked so good in that movie that he made his “Airheads” cast mates — Sandler and Steve Buscemi — look like slobs by comparison.
“I was disappointed in how good you looked in that. You weren’t supposed to do that to us,” he said with a smile. “You were supposed to remain like … a human.”
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Fraser, laughing, quipped, “The wardrobe was that there was no wardrobe. George eats bananas and swings around all day and he wears a loincloth.”
1997 Brendan Fraser stars in the new movie “George of the Jungle” via Getty Images.
“You did right by the character but you did wrong by us, man,” Sandler joked, claiming that Fraser’s transformation had made them feel bad about themselves.
Fraser just shook his head, saying that he couldn’t even think about that anymore — and the conversation took a turn when Sandler responded by asking whether Fraser had been “oiled up” during filming.
“Oh, I was waxed, greased, starved of carbohydrates …” Fraser replied, prompting laughter from Sandler.
“I would drive home after work and stop to get something to eat,” Fraser continued. “And I needed some cash one day and I went to the ATM and I could not remember my PIN number because my brain was misfiring.”
Fraser went on to say that the hunger — coupled with his frustration at being unable to recall his PIN — eventually led to him physically hitting the ATM with his fists. “I didn’t eat that night,” he admitted.
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