Brendan Fraser Got Choked Out By a Noose and Had a Close Encounter With a Snake on the Set of the 1999 Film THE MUMMY

It’s been 20 years since the film The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser was released in theatres. It was a fun and exciting action-adventure for the whole family, which apparently had it’s terrifying moments for the star of the film. In an anniversary article of EW talking about the film, Fraser talked a bit about two of the most treacherous moments for him on set.

While shooting the film in Morocco, the cast was warned against the snakes, and they even saw men climbing on the rocks, who would jab violently at them with poles, and were told they were the snake killers. He also had his own experience, which he describes below:

“They sent a memo out on the call sheet describing a type of snake that, I think, it had yellow dots on it. They said, ‘If you see this kind of snake, do not go near it. Walk — or run away. Because, at best, if it bites you, maybe they’ll amputate your limb. Anyway, there I was, pissing down a rock, and I look down, and there’s the yellow dot snake. I was like, ‘Fuck!‘ I just ran for it.”

And that was scary, but even worse was the incident in which he was thought to be acting, but was actually choking on a noose, which made him lose consciousness. Here’s how it went down:

“I did get fully choked-out. It was scary. Rick is dangling at the end of the rope, and he’s such a tough guy that his neck didn’t snap. We did the wide shot, which was the stuntman going down, and he had a harness on, and it looked great. Then they’ve got to go in [for a close-up]. There was a hangman’s gallows, and there was a hemp rope tied into a noose that was placed around my neck. The first take, I’m doing my best choking acting. Steve says, ‘Can we got for another one and take up the tension on the rope?’ I said, ‘All right, one more take.’ Because a noose around your neck’s going to choke you in the arteries, no matter what. So, the stuntman took up the tension on the rope, and I went up on the balls of my feet, then I guess he took the tension up again, and I’m not a ballerina, I can’t stand on my tip-toes. I remember seeing the camera start to pan around, and then it was like a black iris at the end of a silent film. It was like turning down the volume switch on your home stereo, like the Death Star powering down. I regained consciousness and one of the EMTs was saying my name. There was gravel in my ear and s— really hurt. The stunt coordinator came over, and he said, ‘Hi! Welcome to the club, bro! Ha ha ha!’ And I was like, “Ha ha, funny? Ha ha?’ Like, What the hell? I want to go home! Steven — he and I disagree — but I think he was trying to go, ‘Oh, that wacky Brendan, acting up a storm again!’, or something like that. I was like, ‘Hey, you guys think what you need to, but I’m done for the day.’”

That’s just nuts! Hopefully they we able to get the shot that day, because I don’t know if I would have taken another chance at that stunt. At least not without some pre-established hand signals or something in place. It’s pretty crazy to think that movie came out 20 years ago! Time flies. Read even more from the interview in the latest issue of EW that hits stands today!