By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer
BEDFORD, N.Y. (AP) — Brendan Fraser is staring at a cooling fireplace.
“I have an urge to poke this fire so bad,” Fraser says with a grin.
The 56-year-old actor is midway through breakfast at a boutique Westchester inn not far from his home. He arrived, as Fraser usually does, with wide-eyed excitement, cheerfully greeting the server, ordering up a plate of poached eggs and oatmeal, and occasionally eyeing the fading embers next to him.
Yet Fraser has already rekindled his career thanks to his Oscar-winning turn in 2022’s “The Whale.” His best-actor victory was widely cheered as the comeback for the former 1990s star of “Encino Man,” “George of the Jungle” and “The Mummy.” Still, Fraser’s victory was also in avoiding the trope of the comeback kid while simultaneously reclaiming a stardom derailed by a string of misfires and an alleged sexual assault experience.
Three years later, Fraser has his first leading role since, in “Rental Family,” a Tokyo-set drama by the filmmaker Hikari. In it, Fraser plays a struggling actor who, out of desperation, takes a job with a small agency that hires out actors to fulfill roles in real people’s lives.
Fraser played a more swaggering, idealistic American expat in 2002’s “The Quiet American.” But “Rental Family,” which Searchlight Pictures releases Friday in theaters, relates more to Fraser as he is now: sweetly sensitive, boyishly curious and seeking new horizons.
“I never, ever discount the power of dumb luck,” Fraser says, reflecting on his journey. “George of the Jungle was the Dumb Luck King. That was his secret weapon. George always won the day because of dumb luck. Nothing he did was forethought, it just turned out that way.”
Before flying out the next day for a “The Mummy” fan convention in Minnesota, Fraser spoke about his Oscar, his experience in Japan making “Rental Family” and his impending return to his marquee franchise.
AP: I’ve read about your fondness for archery. Any new habits?
FRASER: I was just getting ready to decorate our rubber deer. I was thinking halves of Ping-Pong balls with googly eyes. And my dentist gave me this awesome set of molds of my teeth. So I thought I’d give him some teeth. Everyone at Thanksgiving has fun shooting the deer. Other than that, straight up, I’ve been playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. (Laughs.) There are not enough bomb flowers in this game. Hyrule is the place I can go to at the end of the day, whatever happened. Sometimes I just want to float around. No harm in that.
AP: Did winning the Academy Award change anything for you?
FRASER: Honestly, I was kind of floating during that whole time without an agent. I was looking for that unicorn project that hadn’t been made into oblivion. I ended up: What is a rental family? Which dog do you like at the pound? I like the one with four teeth and one tweaky eye. Hikari gave me the opportunity to kind of dovetail from whatever happens in the vacuum after you experience a recognition like that. I think about it often. In that envelope-opening-reveal moment that we all crave, it could have gone any way. It could have been any of the guys. It was a moment of: I guess things are going to be a little different going forward. It doesn’t intone automatic, carte-blanche VIP. It’s still the industry. We’re still chopping our way through the tall grass of AI and all this stuff. The industry needs a real B-12 or something.
AP: Well, one sign of the state of the industry was the shelving of the completed “Batgirl,” in which you co-starred.
FRASER: A whole movie. I mean, there were four floors of production in Glasgow. I was sneaking into the art department just to geek out. The tragedy of that is that there’s a generation of little girls who don’t have a heroine to look up to and go, “She looks like me.” I mean, Michael Keaton came back as Batman. The Batman! The product — I’m sorry, “content” — is being commodified to the extent that it’s more valuable to burn it down and get the insurance on it than to give it a shot in the marketplace. I mean, with respect, we could blight itself.
AP: It’s ironic that after winning an Oscar, you chose your next leading role as a failed actor.
FRASER: Yeah, like: Don’t get too comfortable. It can happen to me.
AP: You’ve said this movie helped you get over some sense of insecurity. How so?
FRASER: I struggle with confidence. I always have, the feeling of not being good enough. Believe me, no one can be harder on me than me. No critic, no pithy internet comment can be more biting to me than myself in my private thoughts. That’s OK. I grapple with overcoming that. I was doing “SNL.” I hosted twice. The first time, during the monologue, Lorne (Michaels) has a quick word with the host at dress rehearsal. He said, “You know, it’s all about confidence.” I don’t know if that psyched me up or not. Forget everything you know and just own it. Can you do that is the question, the eternal one.
AP: “Rental Family” presents acting as a kind of service industry. Do you see it that way?
FRASER: It is, straight up. Service rendered, payment received. Rules and boundaries. Tokyo is a place you rent just about anything, from a Mario Kart to a hedgehog — which I’ve done. Sticky little guys.
AP: Why did you rent a hedgehog?
FRASER: There’s a cafe. You can go. They give you gardening gloves and a ticket for two drinks from the vending machine. You can sit there and play with these sticky guys. When are you going to do that? (Laughs.) Capybara, that’s another one. Capybara cafes. They have their own little swimming pool there. They’re just so chill. They’re like the original dude.
AP: Making “Rental Family” in Japan must have been more an experience than a gig.
FRASER: It was personally what I needed. I wanted to remove myself from whatever this place is, just for a while.
AP: Like what?
FRASER: Look out your window, man. All of it. I had traveled to Tokyo once or twice professionally but I was always in a hotel room. But I knew it was a place I loved. I knew it was a place that was mysterious to me. A place of innovation, a feeling like it’s the pointy part of the spear. For “Rental Family,” I was staying in Minato City. It was very sleek and modern and new and convenient. Moving sidewalks and escalators everywhere, skybridges. You’re living in “Blade Runner.” If somebody flew by with a jetpack you’d go, “OK, we’re doing that now.”
AP: You seem to have remained sincere and sweet despite some tumult in your life in Hollywood. How?
FRASER: I’m Canadian. (Laughs.) I get angry. Sure, I get frustrated. I see the shortcuts and loopholes that get taken. Sometimes you just feel like the proverbial bully has the palm of his hand on your forehead and you’re throwing haymakers that don’t land until you’re exhausted and you’re being laughed at. Who’s going to stand up for that person or issue? I don’t know if it’s me, but I know if I don’t contribute to that, maybe that’s a way I can help.
AP: I think it’s why people respond to your performances. The more vulnerable you’ve gotten, the more people like you.
FRASER: Maybe I just stopped acting. Maybe I embraced relying on the things I really feel.
AP: A fourth “Mummy” film has been announced, 17 years after the franchise seemingly ended. Did you think those movies were in your past?
FRASER: The one I wanted to make was never made. The third one was a model of … how can I say this to the AP reporter? NBC had the rights to broadcast the Olympics that year. So they put two together and we went to China. Working in Shanghai, an incredible experience. I’m proud of the third one because I think it’s a good standalone movie. We picked up and did what we do with a different crew on deck and gave it our best shot. But the one I wanted to make is forthcoming. And I’ve been waiting 20 years for this call. Sometimes it was loud, sometimes it was a faint telegraph. Now? It’s time to give the fans what they want.