The Mummy was released way back in 1999, but it remains a beloved fan-favourite that cemented Brendan Fraser as a legit action hero. The sequels didn't quite manage to live up to expectations, while the less said about The Scorpion King, the better (still, they were all superior to the dismal effort starring Tom Cruise in 2017).
During a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Fraser once again reflected on the experience of making The Mummy and revealed that a stunt gone wrong very nearly killed him!
"I was standing on my toes like this with the rope and you only got so far to go," the actor recalls. "Stephen [Sommers, the director] ran over and he said, 'Hey, it doesn’t really look like your choking. Can you sell it?'"
In that next take, things ended up going badly wrong. "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 and I had nowhere to go but down. So he was pulling up and I was going down."
"And then the next thing I knew, my elbow was in my ear, the world was sideways and there was gravel in my teeth."
The Mummy's stunt coordinator immediately rushed to set to wake Fraser up and told him, "'Congratulations, you’re in the club - [the] same thing happened to Mel Gibson on Braveheart.'"
Fraser has never shied away from The Mummy's popularity and embraces the love he gets for his role as Rick O'Connell. We're certainly relieved this was only a near-death experience, and that scene has now become one we'll never be able to look at in the same way!
Check out the full interview with Fraser in the player below.