The Mummy movies were slaying back in the day. While their popularity and legacy are undeniable, shooting The Mummy Returns mangled two great actors: Brendan Fraser and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Accidents and traumas on set are not rare occurrences in the movie industry, and actors often get hurt while shooting action scenes or trying to pull off stunts without stunt doubles.
Unfortunately, not everyone is as invulnerable as Tom Cruise who’s famous for his insane stunts and superior regeneration: others have it tougher.
Stunts and action scenes are also not the only things that can factor in damaging actors’ health.
The environment plays a huge part, too, and we’ve heard quite a few stories about the hardships performers struggle with when filming in inhospitable regions like Antarctica or Sahara.
This is exactly what happened during the shooting of The Mummy Returns: both the environment and the action scenes made a massive dent in the actors’ insurance.
Brendan Fraser and Dwayne Johnson have suffered a lot to get this movie done, and their memories about the process are pretty terrifying.
After The Mummy Returns, Brendan Fraser lived in hospitals for seven years. The actor had to get a knee replacement, bolt his spinal pads, do a laminectomy, and even have surgery on his vocal cords.
On the set, Brendan was in constant pain due to how ruined his body was.
“I was put together with tape and ice. <…> I was building an exoskeleton for myself daily. I needed a laminectomy. And the lumbar didn’t take, so they had to do it again a year later,” Brendan shared in his interview with GQ.
The Rock’s muscular body allowed him to avoid physical trauma, but his part in the movie was far smaller, too.
While Fraser was on the screen the entire time, Dwayne only appeared in the end — and still, the shooting took its painful toll on him.
However well-built you are, the Sahara desert is no joke. To play his part, The Rock had to film in 110-degree heat under direct sunlight; this led to him getting a severe heatstroke.
The fact that he got food poisoning only made matters worse: by the end of the shooting, Johnson lost about 10 pounds of weight. “It was the worst I have ever felt in my life,” the actor admitted later.
The Mummy Returns is an amazing movie, but it took a lot of health damage and mental exhaustion from both the actors and the crew to get it done.
The next time you watch it, remember this — and your appreciation for their work, just like ours, will skyrocket.
