Brendan Fraser at the premiere of "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" held at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, Calif. on July 27, 2008.

In The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the third film in the successful Universal Pictures franchise, explorer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) finds himself in post-war Shanghai with his archaeologist wife Evelyn (Maria Bello), and her brother, Jonathan (John Hannah), as his son Alex (Luke Ford) resurrects the ruthless Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) and his 10,000 Terracotta warriors. Doomed by a wronged sorceress, Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh), to spend eternity in suspended animation, the crazed monarch renews his intense quest for world domination, and will use his unimaginable supernatural powers to wipe out anyone and anything that stands in his way, unless the O’Connells can stop him first.

The 39-year-old Fraser, who is also known for his roles in George of the Jungle and Encino Man, recently spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about how anxious he was to return to the role of Rick O’Connell, and how much he enjoys doing his own stunts.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Was it fun, chasing mummies again?

Brendan Fraser> Yes. It’s what I do! Actually, they chase me. I’m like, “Leave me alone already, will you?”

MediaBlvd> A lot of time has passed, since you last played this character in 2001. Was it weird to get back into the role?        

Brendan> No! I wanted to play Rick. I was missing it. I’ve been waiting for the call from the studio since the last film. I love it. You get to do so much fun stuff, as an actor. You get to go to great places. They strap you into harnesses and throw you around. You have to look like you really know how to take care of business and beat people up, when you’re actually really a wimp. The movies are great fun. There’s real appeal. Every kid or pinstripe executive in an elevator asks me, “When’s the next Mummy movie?” I’m like, “I wanna know the same thing! I’m sitting around by the phone, waiting.” And so, I got the call and was like, “ China? How are we going to do that? Oh, alright. Well, let’s think about this. It’s an archeologically rich nation. It makes sense.” They might not have had burial practices that were mummification, per se, but to animate, or bring to life, the Terracotta warriors of Xi’An is something that I haven’t seen before. I don’t think it’s been done until now. Why did the Terracotta warriors of Xi’An all have different features? Maybe because, for 40 years, people made them for some despotic emperor. I don’t know. But, it’s fun to imagine that maybe there’s a spooky curse that went along with it. So, we got Jet Li to play the heavy.

MediaBlvd> Were you concerned about Stephen Sommers not coming back to direct this film?

Brendan> No.

MediaBlvd> How did you feel about Rachel Weisz not returning?

Brendan> I felt Rachel’s absence when I read the screenplay the first time, I will cop to that. We were partners, we were colleagues, we were friends, and I couldn’t read the screenplay and not think about hearing her say it this way or that way. We had that chemistry. Casting agents put actors together and it works like that. I didn’t lament it. I think Rachel made the choice that was correct for her. I don’t know what the reason was. I quickly said to myself, “A role is a role. You just step into it.” Maybe in certain cases they’re indelible. There’s no replacing Indiana Jones, for instance. It’s Harrison Ford. Come on! And, in certain instances, you take another actress and put them in and let them play, and see what they’re going to do with it. In broad strokes, you think, “Well, it’s been seven years. It’s a new Mummy movie.” There’s practically a generation that’s come of age, seeing films. It’s not compulsory to see the first two to have a good time watching the third one. We got a new director, Rob Cohen, who does things differently -- in the same spirit of it, just bigger and more. And, what Maria Bello brought to the role, through the casting process and the screen tests, was enthusiasm, sass and class, she’s sexy and she’s bad news with her Winchester rifle. She had a real good run at doing the dialect, as best she could without acting an accent, which can so often happen, to varying degrees of success, when actors of other native-speaking tongues attempt to do that. She played the part, rather than let it play her. She made it her own. After the nod and the wink and the reveal, the answer that begs the question is that she’s a completely different person. It’s a movie. Relax. Brain cancer will not be cured during this hour and a half.

MediaBlvd> Was there anything in this that was way more challenging for you than in the first two films?

Brendan> Location work is always challenging. You have to physically pick yourself up and go somewhere else for a couple months. I enjoyed it. I did. But, it’s challenging. The most challenging aspect was actually getting to the set from the hotel, at 3 am, in a mining community. The highways are mega-highways with 18-wheelers parked, bumper to bumper, for miles. They just let a few of them in, in the morning, to the city, so they don’t completely clog it. You’ll see guys out there BBQ-ing and playing cards. That’s how things are done. So, we had to take all these rural routes and go through farms, and the drivers would get lost, and I’d get out and take a picture. That was an adventure.

MediaBlvd> How did you feel when you found out that this movie would be coming out the same summer as Indiana Jones 4?

Brendan> They’re both in the action adventure genre. I don’t know if Rick is the archeologist hero, like Indiana Jones. Evie is the archeologist. He’s more of an expeditionist, if you think about it. He’s just there because he was in love with the girl, in the first film. He was up to some dodgy business then. In the second film, she made an honest guy out of him. He wanted to make sure everything was cool. In the third film, they’re bored. Their life has become so unsedentary. He’s taken up fly fishing, for God’s sake. He’s got a whole closet full of failed hobbies. She’s a very successful author and he supports her. What a modern father and husband he is. But, they won’t admit to each other that they kind of want to get back into the game. So, I think that they realize that they need to get back into the field to make their relationship work better and, certainly, to get back in touch with their kid, who’s up to no good, in their eyes. He’s gone off and tried to be a chip off the old block, only he’s more of a railroad tie. He’s unearthed the terra cotta warriors, and there’s a megalomaniac on the loose and he’s going to rule the world with big, clay-pot soldiers.                                                                                             

MediaBlvd> Did you do most of your own stunts in the film?

Brendan> As many as I was allowed to do. And, the ones that were really dangerous, we saved for the last week.

MediaBlvd> Did you enjoy doing that?

Brendan> I don’t like the part where it goes, “Bang!,” and hurts. But, the part in between, “Action!,” and then, “Cut!,” I like.

MediaBlvd> Any bad injuries?

Brendan> No, none! It took me three films. I was convinced that I wasn’t going to limp across the finish line.

MediaBlvd> Were you disappointed that you didn’t get to fight more with Jet Li?

Brendan> I didn’t really get to fight-fight with him. We just duked it out. He’s a natural artist at it. He’s known for it. Rob was like, “You’re going to a Krav Maga center in Los Angeles,” and I was like, “What is that?” It’s about finishing moves, basically. So, it toughened me up a bit. I know I needed that.

MediaBlvd> Did you meet Luke Ford and have any bonding time before you started filming, in order to convincingly portray the father-son relationship?

Brendan> They do screen tests and, for the right reasons, they find who they need. Luke got the gig. Sure, there was a rehearsal period. We didn’t know each other, so we went and talked a bit. Everything you need to know should be on the page, if you’re paying attention. And then, you just surrender yourself to where you are and the environment, and just live it. I’m not really big on finding a way to fabricate something when it’s easier to just act it.

MediaBlvd> Do you feel any need to protect the character, since you’ve played it twice before, and Rob’s coming into this on the third film?

Brendan> I don’t know because it’s been seven years, in story terms also. He’s a revamped version of who he was. I just have to say that I loved playing the part in the first two. Did we know the first one was going to be a big success? No. But, no one sets out to make a turkey. With the second one, they were like, “Quick, do another Mummy movie!” We were like, “Okay, let’s remake the first one.” With the third one, we tried something new.

MediaBlvd> As the person who was the continuity between the first two films and this one, were you the keeper of the flame?

Brendan> Bob Ducsay produced the first two films. He actually edited the first one. He was Stephen’s friend and partner for years, when they were at film school. So now, Bob functioned in the capacity as an executive producer. We had to go back and watch the other two movies to remember what the storyline was and how it could factor into this one, and he was the anthology of that. But, they gave liberty to Rob to do what he does, which is moving big, honking set pieces around really well. He’s made XXX and Stealth and The Fast and the Furious. He knows how to do that. That’s what he does. Stephen also does that. Steve is a Minnesota boy, son of a pediatrician, family man, great guy. He’ll set up the world’s biggest crash course, and then stick actors in it and go, “Ready! And, don’t suck! Action!” So, we had a good time making the films. With Rob, he’s quite outspoken and he has a real particular voice. He’s a unique individual. I thought it was very interesting that, as a young man, he was at Harvard, studying archeology with an interest in Chinese history. So, this brings to the fold everything that he’s good at and passionate about.

MediaBlvd> What’s a Rob Cohen set like? Is it fun?

Brendan> It’s a big picture. He dubbed the film for 18 hours a day. Those poor guys were falling asleep at stop lights. And, on top of that, his wife bore him triplets. Talk about when it rains, it pours. And, he still finds time to go surfing in the morning. I don’t know how he does it. He’s a remarkable individual. He’s a damn good director, too. I learned from Ian McKellan -- and I’m not just dropping names, but I’m totally awestruck that I ever got to work with him -- a good director will say, “Hey, it’s over there,” and directs you. And, Rob will tell you how to get there, which train to catch, what time to arrive and what to wear, if you want to know. Otherwise, he’ll stand back and let his actors do what they do, and let them trust their intuitions about it, and then shape it or mold it, if it isn’t right. And, if it’s just flat-out wrong, he’ll say, “No! Go again!”

MediaBlvd> Did you have any input into the story, and did you like the idea of your character having a son?

Brendan> It was important because then you’ve got that dynamic of a father-son relationship, when they collide. I was the fourth of four sons. It happens. You lock horns. Old bull, young bull. Mom has to walk in and dump a bucket of water on both of them, send them to separate corners and say, “Go sort this out, so we can go and vanquish the undead and be a family again!” You have to give the audience something to identify with.

MediaBlvd> Do you want to do more Mummy movies?

Brendan> Well, they kind of have a way of building in that, “We might do another one,” at the end of the movie, when John Hannah says, “I’m going to Peru. They don’t have any mummies there.”

MediaBlvd> As an actor, you’ll do a project and then it will take a long time to get to the screen. Do you remove that from your head and say, “I’ll think about that when it comes out,” or do you chomp at the bit because you want people to see it? How does that work for you?

Brendan> It might have been frustrating six years ago, when I was young and dumb. Now that I’m old and smart, it’s not a problem. Journey 3D, for instance, was filmed two years ago. That had a lot of post-production. I won’t lie, there’s some politics behind that. There always is. And then, when it comes out, if it does well, it all just melts away, like so much sugar in the rain. The central issue was that the technology was so innovative, and because it was the first out of the gate. It’s the guinea pig to use 3D in that capacity, for a high-def, feature-length, narrative-driven, action adventure with dramatic elements, based on a classic science fiction tale written by the godfather of the genre, Jules Verne. That’s a tall order, in many ways, but at the same time, how are you going to get it to the people, the way it was supposed to be shown, in 3D, as it was always conceived to be, by one of the world’s pre-eminent visifects guys? We had to play the waiting game. I had to go to ShoWest. They gave me a nice award for a Decade in Film Achievement. It took me 20 years to get it, but there were 10 good years in there. And, I put 3D glasses on and spoke to a bunch of exhibitors in this massive room, all eating their fillet mignons. I was like, “Get your theaters converted to 3D. Do you like the sound cha-ching or not? Thanks very much for the award. Peace out!” Anyway, the cool thing is -- and this is not bragging here -- it performed three to one on 3D screens. What does that tell you? That tells us a lot. They’ve got to get with the game. So, you’ve got to wait. It depends on the elements of the film, in that case.

MediaBlvd> What’s going on with Inkheart?

Brendan> I’ll tell you what I know: There’s a to-be-determined release date, which will probably be December or January -- the first quarter of next year, or the end of this year. Inkheart is this fantasy picture that was adapted from a children’s novelist, called Cordelia Funke. She wrote a novel about a bookbinder who has an unusual ability. When he reads aloud, elements of whatever he’s reading arrive somehow, mercurially. And, unfortunately, things disappear too. In the case of the story, it was his wife that disappeared, so he and his daughter -- who doesn’t know where mom went -- have been looking for a copy of this book that’s out of print. He can’t find one, and then he finally gets his hands on a copy, and he encounters some rather unsavory characters, along the way. The cast is rounded out by the amazing Andy Serkis, Paul Bettany and Helen Mirren. She’s good. She let everybody stand out in the parking lot with her Oscar. The drivers were out there with their cell phones, getting their pictures taken with it. She said, “Oh, just put it back when you’re done.” She’s sexy. The answer is stay tuned, it will come out.

MediaBlvd> Have you seen a rough cut of that yet?

Brendan> I’ve seen it. It’s a very inventive film. It’s very interesting. Iain Softley directed it. He’s created this world, using retro technology with way cool cars, and setting it in a medieval graffiti world. It’s like nothing you’ve really seen. We shot in Italy on locations, and stayed really open and loose.

MediaBlvd> What other projects do you have coming up?

Brendan> Aside from Inkheart, that’s pretty much it. I’m going to Disneyland! I don’t know. I’ll find something to do.