to Albert Brooks, in
the underrated comedy The Scout (1994), to Shirley MacLaine (Mrs.
Winterbourne, 1996), and Sir Ian McKellen, who won an Oscar
nomination for his role opposite Fraser in Gods and Monsters
(1998). This November he is set to star in Monkeybone, an
adventure which blends live action and animation, and he is already on
his way back to North Africa to film the sequel to The Mummy.
 he
return to the desert will be just the latest adventure in a
cosmopolitan life that began in Indianapolis, where he was born on
December 3, 1968, to Canadian parents Peter and Carol. Fraser has not
stopped moving since. |
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Brendan and his three older brothers spent most
of their youth living in Canada and Europe, and resettled in a
different country every three or four years to accommodate his father’s
work with the Canadian Foreign Service. As a result, Fraser attended a
variety of schools in Holland, Seattle, Ottawa, and Toronto “Growing
up, there wasn’t much television to watch, and when there was, it
was often old black and white silent movies, like Buster Keaton,” he
recalls. From an early age Fraser grew to appreciate these silent
comedians as well as the circus clowns whom he was frequently taken to
see on school
outings. “I saw a lot of physical comedy, which is probably how I
learned to appreciate it. |
|
It didn’t have to be in English for me to
get the joke.”
It was in
England, where he was first exposed to the vibrant London theater
scene, when the acting bug really bit. By the time he got to high
school - back in Toronto at Upper Canada College boarding school - he
had his first working connection to the theater as a stage manager and
ticket seller. At age 18, he enrolled at the Actor’s Conservatory as
Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts. There he performed
Shakespeare and other classical productions in local theaters. Among
the early influences in his career at the time was the actor,
pantomimist, and clown Bill Irwin. “I used to see him perform in
Seattle,” recalls Fraser. “To my mind, he embodied everything that
was |
egenerate rock star” is just one of seven roles that Fraser plays in Bedazzled, a remake of the 1967 film that originally starred Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. The story depicts Fraser as a dronish computer worker who sells his soul to the devil (Elizabeth Hurley) in exchange for seven wishes so that he can get his dream girl (played by Frances O’Connor). In the film - what writer/director Harold Ramis calls seven little films - Fraser also has the opportunity to play a drug lord, a genius, and a 7’9” basketball star, among other characters. Ramis, whose credits include Analyze This and Groundhog Day, calls his leading man a “skillful, gifted actor.” He explains, “I knew from his previous work that Fraser could go very broad and also be subtle and serious, as well as dashing and heroic. He manages to combine his vulnerability with his hunkiness. He can be completely goofy without compromising his dreamboat quality or his dignity.”
