Brendan Fraser

From GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE and THE MUMMY to THE WHALE, Brendan Fraser has been making audiences laugh and gasp and cry for over 30 years. The soft spoken Oscar winner joins Josh at the 92nd Street Y for a live chat about his entire career up to and including RENTAL FAMILY. UPCOMING EVENTS Walker Scobell 12/19 in NYC -- ⁠⁠Tickets here⁠⁠ Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

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• 0:29Speaker 01

  I appreciate the notices and it always... I feel moved whenever someone says, "Hey, I loved you in George of the Jungle. You were my childhood." And then they say, "I'm showing my kid that movie now." And I'm like, "I'm old."

• 0:49Speaker 02

  Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, Sad, Confused begins now.

• 0:57Josh Horowitz?

  Hey guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Today on the podcast, a first time guest. I don't know how he's eluded me so long, but Brendan Fraser is on the show today talking Rental Family, George of the Jungle, The Mummy, Gods and Monsters, so many more amazing projects in his career. This one's a treat. Thanks, guys, as always, for checking out the podcast, for listening, for watching on Spotify, perhaps. I will say, we hit amazing numbers recently. We're the most watched entertainment podcast on Spotify as of this moment. May change, may go up or down, whatever. I guess it's not going to go up. But I'm so appreciative of you guys for checking out the podcast. We are bigger and better, I like to think, than ever.

• 1:41Josh Horowitz?

  And that's because of you guys spreading the good word. So please continue to do so. Whether you're new to Happy, Sad, Confused or not, tell a friend. Let them know what we do over here. And if you have a favorite actor or filmmaker, they've probably been on the pod. Probably more than once, except Brendan Fraser, who has eluded me, as I said. Um, this was a great event. We taped this at the 92nd Street Y. Uh, and Brendan is so sweet and soft spoken and funny and just a unique, amazing vibe that really connects with fans. Uh, he is so endearing on screen and in interviews. And this was a really special night. Uh, this is a career conversation.

• 2:23Josh Horowitz?

  This was taped after this audience saw his new film, which is Rental Family, which I really recommend. I've seen it a couple of times. It is such a sweet story. Uh, it's a fish out of water story. He plays Philip, a, uh, a kind of out of work, down and out actor, living in Tokyo, who somehow gets involved in this bizarre service, which apparently these things exist in Japan, where you can essentially rent a family member, a brother, a sister, a mother, a father, to fill some need in your life. Um, it is funny. It is heartwarming. It is sweet. Uh, it's a, it's a good one about connection and, and something good for the holidays, I think, actually. So I hope you guys check it out. It's the

• 3:07Josh Horowitz?

  kind of small dramedy that I want to see more of on the big screen. Uh, I think you guys are going to enjoy this conversation. Before we throw to it, I do want to remind you, as always, patreon.com/happy say confused, early access, bonus materials, merch, so much cool stuff. We have a upcoming event with Walker Scobell, that there are some tickets available for. If you're a Percy Jackson fan, or if you have a Percy Jackson fan in your life, get your tickets now because this one is going to sell out. I'm pretty sure. Uh, the link for that is in the show notes. And yeah, patreon.com/happy say confused. Support us over there. Makes us more, uh, more stuff over here. Uh, all right. Here we go. Without any further ado, I take you now to a live taping of the pod with the

• 3:49Josh Horowitz?

  one and only Brendan Fraser at the 92nd Street Y. Enjoy. Hi, everybody. Hello. Good evening, everybody. Welcome. Welcome to the 92nd Street Y. My name is Josh Horowitz. I host a podcast called Happy Say Confused. And this is a very, very special taping of that podcast because, well, first of all, this audience has just seen Rental Family earlier than the rest of the world. What did you think, guys?

• 4:19Josh Horowitz?

  What a beautiful piece of work, am I right? I know you guys are gonna spread the good word of this, you've felt the emotion, the humor, everything about this film is so special, directed by Hakari, who did an amazing job. And its lead is a very special actor who I've actually never had on the podcast, so I'm so excited tonight because, I'm not gonna say too much, because we all know who Brendan Fraser is and what he's done in his remarkable career. Yeah, give it up, come on, Brendan Fraser, everybody.

• 4:49Josh Horowitz?

  He has over thirty years of work in film and TV. He's an Academy Award winner, of course. We've loved him in such diverse work from, you know, way back when, George of the Jungle, The Mummy, Gods and Monsters, and yes, his heartbreaking, amazing portrayal, just a couple of years back, in The Whale. There's a lot to celebrate, a lot to talk about. I am so, so, so very thrilled to welcome, to the 9th Second Street Y stage, for the very first time, make him feel welcome, it's Brendan Fraser, everybody. Give it up.

• 5:40Speaker 01

  Konbanwa.

• 5:43Speaker 01

  Otsukaraisama deshita.

• 5:46Josh Horowitz?

  He's now fluent, are you? How's your Japanese?

• 5:49Speaker 01

  Akira Iomoto, his English was a lot better than my Japanese.

• 5:54Josh Horowitz?

  Man, thanks so much for sharing this film, sharing this work, and sharing your time with us tonight, it's really exciting to have you here. First of all, Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser, does that ever get old, at this point?

• 6:05Speaker 01

  I'm getting accustomed to it.

• 6:08Josh Horowitz?

  You're owning it. Does it entitle you to any privileges? You walk into a Starbucks, can you go from like a grande to a venti, just from the Oscar winner? Like, what does it afford you?

• 6:18Speaker 01

  I've been bolted to a helmet when I walk.

• 6:22Josh Horowitz?

  It's very subtle. Um, all right, let's talk, let's start on this film because it's a very special piece of work. By the way, if you ever have the opportunity, watch Rental Family next to Brendan Fraser next to you. He'll give you amazing commentary about the film as it was going. Um, you're very proud of this one, as you should be.

• 6:40Speaker 01

  Absolutely, I am.

• 6:42Josh Horowitz?

  Talk to me a little bit about why this one has resonated so deeply with you.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  When I watch Rental Family, I think it's a film we need now. I think it's a film that's an antidote to cynicism, and I think it's a film that's never sentimental, and it delivers empathy for people who may feel bereft, may have, you know, a sense of solitude that leads to them being lonesome, to being lonely. And it's set in Tokyo, as you see clearly, which is just a beehive of activity, and you would possibly be confounded to think like, how could, you know, you feel so alone in such a busy, busy place?

• 7:28Speaker 01

  But loneliness is real, and it's actually a, it's a public health concern in many ways because of the demographics in, well, in Japan, there's an aging population, and there's issues with birth rates, and of course, a new generation who are changing, you know, social statuses, and there make, there are holes in between where oftentimes, as you saw in the film, you know, forty-five, fifty-year-old men are still living with their parents, and they're, they're just not socialized to know how to interact with one another.

• 8:11Speaker 01

  But there's a fix. You can rent family members.

• 8:17Josh Horowitz?

  All right.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  In Japan.

• 8:19Josh Horowitz?

  This, yes, this is the question you've been getting nonstop, and because those of us here in the States, we somehow can't believe this is an actual, real thing, but this is an actual, real thing.

• 8:27Speaker 01

  It is. It's a business model that's been in use since the nineteen eighties. There's some three hundred-plus operating, probably more now that films coming out, but, I mean, you can rent nearly anything in, in Tokyo. You can, I rented a hedgehog.

• 8:46Speaker 01

  For an afternoon, I had to give it back.

• 8:49Josh Horowitz?

  It's a rental.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  It's a rental, you know?

• 8:54Josh Horowitz?

  So, I mean, you're getting at what I think resonates so much with all of us is that, yes, we live in this age of connectivity. We are connected seemingly to the entire world at all times, and yet we are siloed off often from human contact.

• 9:09Speaker 01

  There's that. We're now a society and a new generation who have a device in their hand that, while it is, you know, very stimulating for all kinds of interesting reasons, one thing it just can't do is really sincerely give you the connection that humans genuinely crave, that genuinely need. So, that's another explanation of how that is addressed, in particular in Tokyo, by allowing for people to, well, effectively, have the courage to

• 9:48Speaker 01

  say, "I need help," which is the first step towards ameliorating whatever concern to you, right? But I, personally, I didn't know you could ask for help until probably only a dozen or so years ago. And I was astonished that when you do, someone will help you. If I can make a point of that just one more way, in the film The Whale, Charlie is struggling with an eating disorder, and it's rendered him incapable of walking

• 10:30Speaker 01

  to leave his apartment. And he, too, is so very alone, feels so lonesome. We were partnered on that film with an operation called the Obesity Action Coalition, who are, really are our lighthouse in many ways. And the biggest challenge that they had, and they are, I guess, an agency of their own, in their own way, who offer...

• 10:58Speaker 01

  Guidance through referrals and in-house

• 11:04Speaker 01

  medical treatment, pretty much anything, support. And they told me the number one issue for addressing the issue of obesity is that people feel so stigmatized that they they they can't or they won't stand up for themselves and they don't ask for help. But when the film came out, the number of that engagement spiked. So it just goes to show that if you reach out, there you really can get a good result, but it it just takes you, it just, you just need to take that that first step.

• 11:38Josh Horowitz?

  The hardest one, but the most important one. Yeah, yeah.

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• 12:23Speaker 05

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• 13:25Josh Horowitz?

  For you and your own life and career, I mean, has acting and celebrity to a degree been kind of the cheat code to connectedness? I mean, you can walk out on the street, if you're having a bad day, you can walk out on the street and you can receive love. You can receive a lot of love being Brendan Fraser. You've brought so much joy to people. That must be a nice kind of like cheat code to, I don't know, connecting on days where you need connection.

• 13:47Speaker 01

  It has its pros and cons.

• 13:49Josh Horowitz?

  I'm looking at the pros for now, yep.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  Hey, you owe me 50 bucks! You know, that one. I appreciate the notices and it always, I feel moved whenever someone says, "Hey, I loved you in George of the Jungle. You like were my childhood." And then they say, "I'm showing my kid that movie now." And I'm like, "I'm old."

• 14:15Josh Horowitz?

  Went through a whole thing right in 10 seconds.

• 14:19Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 14:20Josh Horowitz?

  We were talking backstage. I mean, it's also, I mean, I don't know, you know, I'm sure some people have had the pleasure of visiting Japan, Tokyo. What a remarkable culture, this juxtaposition of the modern and the ancient. And it's just fascinating. It sounds like you fell in love with the culture.

• 14:38Speaker 01

  Absolutely. For me, just a quick show of hands, who has been to Japan? Like, you know, about 14 so percent of the house?

• 14:48Josh Horowitz?

  That's accurate, at 14.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Every year.

• 14:51Josh Horowitz?

  Every year.

• 14:52Speaker 01

  I think at 15, 15%.

• 14:53Josh Horowitz?

  15%. And rising.

• 14:55Speaker 01

  And rising. Well, for the rest of you, you have just basically spent two hours in Japan because this film was made there. And it was made with love. I adore the culture. I adore the architecture, the food, the demeanor, the rules following. Everything works there.

• 15:20Josh Horowitz?

  What?

• 15:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:23Speaker 01

  Press that button, there are many of them. Escalators everywhere. If, oh, I was staying in a part of Tokyo called Minato City, which is quite modern. And, you know, their construction rules are so guided that they start at 8 a.m. on the dock and they stop at like 4:30 p.m. And they don't break the rules. I mean, like, it's not Manhattan. You know, and Manhattan's gonna be a great place when they finish building it. It's gonna be amazing.

• 15:53Josh Horowitz?

  We're so close. We're so close.

• 15:58Speaker 01

  But if you were to see, for instance, somebody fly past your window using a jetpack.

• 16:03Josh Horowitz?

  Sure.

• 16:04Speaker 01

  You would just kinda go, okay, well, I guess we're doing that now.

• 16:08Josh Horowitz?

  So what would you take from Japan back here to New York? Food, cultural item, practice? If you could steal part of their culture and adopt it here?

• 16:20Speaker 01

  I think courtesy. The sense of not burdening others with not just your troubles or your concerns, but making every best effort to make those around you as comfortable as possible at all times. You know, just basic one, two, threes of chivalry. Being a, well, so-called gentleman. Years ago, I made a film directed by Hugh Wilson. It was called Blast From The Past. And, I'm saying it. And he told me that that film was an elegy to his father, who he admired deeply, of course, naturally loved.

• 17:01Speaker 01

  But he said his father was a gentleman and he lived by those rules. You know, you do what you can to not inconvenience others. And, you know, here I thought, and many of us also did, that gentlemen are just, you know, people who own horses or something like that. But, not true.

• 17:19Josh Horowitz?

  Are, um, are Philip's struggles as an actor relatable to you at all? I don't know if you have any toothpaste commercials in your past that I haven't dug up, but...

• 17:30Speaker 01

  Uh, it was never committed to any kind of image rendering device, but I can paint the picture for you. Uh, yeah, sure. I was nineteen. I was in Seattle, Washington. I was just finishing training at Cornish College of the Arts and, uh, I was broke, flat broke, and, uh, I got a gig to be the mascot for a, oh, what was it? It was like, uh, when you lock up your stuff, what's it called?

• 18:02Speaker 01

  Like, you know, the compartments of the...

• 18:06Josh Horowitz?

  Storage facility?

• 18:07Speaker 01

  Not all at the same time, thank you. Storage facility that was opening. And, uh, the mascot was like this Keystone Cop.

• 18:15Josh Horowitz?

  Got it.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  So, you know, the helmet, the tunic, mustache, the twirly, uh, baton, very, you know, chaplain-esque big shoes. And, uh, I was like, yeah, fourteen bucks an hour, I'm there. So, I took the job very seriously. Um, I arrived at the location on Aurora Avenue North in Seattle. If you know the story about Aurora Avenue North, Google it. Um, and, uh, hey, I invited every car that came by to stop in and lock up their stuff. There's a, um, a special being run for signing up early this weekend. Oh, man, I got flipped off so many times. I think I took it a little too seriously. Well, needless to say, I left that one off my CV. What were we talking about?

• 18:58Josh Horowitz?

  All the highlights of your career, and that's one. Um, so was the evidence early on that you were gonna make a career in acting, if I talk to friends and family about Brendan as a kid?

• 19:10Speaker 01

  Um, I don't, I don't think so. Uh, I, I, I mean, I, I made the decision pretty quickly at age of seventeen. I went to a high school, um, that was in Toronto, and it went to grade thirteen, and that was kind of like a sloughy off year, just, you know, you got credits or something like that, but... Um, my father's work was with Tourism Canada and the bursary that our family received to send me to galt, to school for tuition was taken away. And so, quite suddenly, um, I wasn't allowed to go back. I was, I was quite crestfallen if I, if I'm honest. And so, this was, uh, something that came down like a bucket of cold water just before

• 19:52Speaker 01

  that Labor Day weekend before we were to start the new year, the school year. And, um, so, I cracked open the Yellow Pages and I, I looked up acting, uh, cause I remember this is what I felt like, it's where I felt that I belonged.

• 20:09Josh Horowitz?

  From like school plays?

• 20:10Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly. I mean, that was really the only reason why they let me stay at that high school, to be honest with you. Although I was carrying a lot of spears.

• 20:17Josh Horowitz?

  You did it better than-

• 20:19Speaker 01

  Although I did, I'd also, if I may decide, I did play Bernardo in West Side Story.

• 20:23Josh Horowitz?

  Oh.

• 20:24Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, thank you. Yeah, I, I had like a ninety-seven second death. On stage.

• 20:30Josh Horowitz?

  You really drew it out.

• 20:31Speaker 01

  Oh, believe me, I, I got a Ziploc bag, I filled it with like red food dye, I taped it to my chest. And when it came time to get stabbed, it wouldn't pop as much as I hit it. So, I was smacking, and then it, yeah, then it popped and it just went gush, splashed off of my throat into the front row of like the orchestra pit and some poor kid like, "Ah!" Like, you know? And I went back years later to tell, address the school and I could still see the stain on the, on the boards where, where I fell.

• 21:04Josh Horowitz?

  Literally made your mark. Congratulations.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  Exactly. Wrote it in blood. Not mine.

• 21:11Josh Horowitz?

  So, you, you got that rush from even school plays and then you-

• 21:14Speaker 01

  It gave me a sense of belonging.

• 21:15Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 21:16Speaker 01

  I mean, and we all wanna belong in one way or another. We've all felt like, like we've had our nose pressed up against the glass on the outside and you wanna be a part of whatever's in that you, that you're looking at, you behold, but there's something holding you back, whether it's personal or some other external force. And that, that was the theme also in the film, uh, School Ties, which I did in nineteen ninety-one.

• 21:46Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, let the record show. So you did a small bit in Dogfight, which is a great movie. That's long forgotten, but a fantastic movie. Lily Taylor, the great River Phoenix.

• 21:56Speaker 01

  Didn't I tell you my union card line?

• 22:01Josh Horowitz?

  Let's hear it.

• 22:04Speaker 01

  You made me say it.

• 22:06Speaker 01

  "How'd you like to eat my shit, huh?"

• 22:16Speaker 01

  "Hey, Taft Hartley, it got me my union card, so I win."

• 22:22Josh Horowitz?

  That's an Academy Award-winning performance, right there, from an actor. But then you have this remarkable one-two punch that will go down in history of Encino Man and School Ties.

• 22:36Josh Horowitz?

  Which will never be replicated, I would venture.

• 22:40Josh Horowitz?

  Tell me a little bit about that year. I don't know what sequence you did them, but that must have been quite a reckoning for you in films, to kind of figure out your place in the movie industry.

• 22:49Speaker 01

  I had left my formal training, conservatory training in Seattle, Washington. I did a year as an intern at Entebon Theater. I knocked around doing, like, jobs cabling Christmas tree lights in a cherry picker, like, forty, fifty feet in the air, in a bucket, with a guy who just got out on a work release program. So I figured, you know, it's probably time to, you know, blow out of Seattle and go follow my fortune. And I did have a full-tilt scholarship offered to me at SMU. And that was for a master's program.

• 23:31Speaker 01

  And I chose SMU because I liked the architecture, and also because the instructors there were, as I remember it, they were the instructors of my instructors, so it seemed like, you know, it was good, but a good choice to make. But it also meant that I'd have to go back to school again, and so, you know, I rethought it. So I stopped in California on the way.

• 23:56Speaker 01

  Couch-surfed with a classmate of mine's apartment and I went to a meeting on the first morning, the day really, that I arrived. It was a callback for a film called Blood In, Blood Out. It was directed by Taylor Hackford. And I had done an audition in Seattle and they said they wanted to see me there. So I went into the office and it was my time to go and do my reading. And I went into the room and my introduction to Hollywood and directors and first big audition was Taylor just getting off of a call and he's going, "Well, you just came out of this

• 24:39Speaker 01

  smell like a fucking rose, didn't you?" And he slams the phone down. "What?" So I did my reading and I was not right for this part. I was rattled a little bit, but the casting director said, "Hey, look, you're gonna need an agent. Look around. Here's a list of a few." That person's name was Sharon Bialli and I owe her a debt of gratitude for my career for that occasion and I say it here now in 92nd Street Y. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Sharon Bialli.

• 25:19Josh Horowitz?

  You, I mean, the amazing array of actors you're around. Did you feel like you were in a company of actors? I mean, looking back, it's Anthony Rapp, it's Matt Damon, it's Ben Affleck.

• 25:28Speaker 01

  Cole Hauser.

• 25:29Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 25:30Speaker 01

  Ben, Randall Batinkoff.

• 25:33Josh Horowitz?

  Were these like the actors you were going up against in auditions? Like, did you know all those guys at the time?

• 25:37Speaker 01

  I met them while auditioning for the film School Ties and I was told that they had all auditioned for the role of David before I did. And, you know, so we were kind of cycling through who was gonna be the David is what they said. And luckily, I was given an offer by Sherri Lansing to do a screen test and I remember...

• 26:04Speaker 01

  Takujimoto was the DP. And he was the one who pointed out to me that how important it is to step on the mark. The piece of tape he put there, but he wasn't condescending about it at all. He was, so he explained so that, you know, the focus puller can keep it sharp because he, he was very helpful. And Matt Damon, he, I mean, he was already hired, so I, I thought, well, he must have done something right to get the gig. I should probably really focus in and pay attention to Matt. And there was something about that reading that we did that somehow made sense. My sensibilities were really broad.

• 26:49Speaker 01

  I was very theatrical. I had a sense of, you know, playing to the back row for what I believed. And I could see immediately how focused and easily and comfortably that Matt spoke dialogue that I just did my best to match pitch with him. So another debt of gratitude, Matt, I got the job. Thanks for that.

• 27:13Josh Horowitz?

  It's, I mean, then you're kind of off and running from those, those first couple of films. I mean, if you look back at the filmography, you know, it's Airheads, it's With Honors. I remember that film with Albert Brooks, The Scout. You're making a lot of quality work. And then, and then there's something like George of the Jungle, which on paper should not work. Like, that's such, and this is kind of like emblematic of a lot of things in your career. There are things that are like, is this really gonna work? Like, this feels really broad and silly and could be, if it's not done quite right, it's gonna fall flat on its face. And yet, they always work with you, Brendan.

• 27:48Speaker 01

  Well, you know, you don't know until you try it, I guess is the next thing to say. But also.

• 27:57Speaker 01

  There's something in me where I'm constantly looking for something that seems sort of risky that way, creatively speaking that is. I mean, there've been a few risks I've taken on film sets that have resulted in bumps and bruises too, but you know, that comes with the territory. And at that time, I was a really fit guy. I was a very physical performer. And you know, I figured I could really hold my own. And by and large, I got away with it, you know, until you, you know, until I turned sixteen. You recall back to the, never mind. It was

• 28:38Speaker 01

  just important to somehow go towards that risk, that fear even. I believed, as I was told and trained, that that's usually where the most growth will come from.

• 28:53Josh Horowitz?

  Yes.

• 28:54Speaker 01

  And you might just surprise yourself and others too, if you, if you commit fully. And, and also ask yourself, what's the worst thing that can happen?

• 29:03Josh Horowitz?

  And what's the best thing that can happen if you play it safe? Like, if you play it safe, you know, the end result's only gonna be a B minus at best.

• 29:12Speaker 01

  Fair, fair enough. I agree. So, why play safe? I decided to keep, keep, keep pace with the, the speed that films were being made in the nineties, independence that is. And there were many, many of them. There were many studio pictures being made. Like, they were lined up like airplanes on tarmac about to take off. And around the time, I think it was, probably around Titanic, around that time in the industry.

• 29:43Josh Horowitz?

  Ninety-seven, Titanic, yeah.

• 29:44Speaker 01

  Around there, things changed a little bit after that sort of blockbuster era.

• 29:49Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 29:49Speaker 01

  And it, you know, later became. Where we are now and superheroes and etc. Yeah.

• 29:55Josh Horowitz?

  But you were even from that period of time, if you look at it, the great Bill Condon film Gods and Monsters, you're working with Sir Ian McKellen, a little later on, you're working with Michael Caine, Philip Noyce, Quiet American. So clearly you are, you had enough savviness and interest in your career that you needed to satisfy kind of both sides of the brain. You wanted to kind of, different kinds of experiences throughout.

• 30:19Speaker 01

  I did feel like, one for you, one for me. Two for you, one for me. You know, I, I, I might not have made so many friends sometimes by that sort of trajectory and I bumped my way through a lot of different agencies, etc. But, again, I was willing to take those risks and an opportunity to work with, you know, one of my heroes who is Ian McKellen. In that library where I trained at Cornish, I probably wore out the beta copy of Acting Shakespeare that he did for BBC a thousand years ago.

• 30:57Speaker 01

  And I always marveled at how he had such facility with language, clearly, to make classical text, diamic pentameter, sound as, as ordinary as the conversation you and I are having right now. And he, he just seemed to just speak to the, the, the need to communicate that we, we all felt as young actors. And the opportunity to work with him was unfathomably unattainable in, you know, in my fondest hope, but, surprise, surprise, turns out Ian's just a regular guy.

• 31:39Josh Horowitz?

  This is the same kind of thing you hear about like someone like Sir Anthony Hopkins. It's like they kind of like, they just, they're not precious about the work. It's just, it's a job.

• 31:48Speaker 01

  Get on with it, is, you know, creed.

• 31:50Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 31:51Speaker 01

  That and, let's know the words, so he would sit down and say them and that also, something that always stayed with me was that we should approach this work as if...

• 32:06Speaker 01

  As if it's the first time you ever have, and also the last time you ever will. So the stakes are there. And that stayed with me. Stayed with me. It stayed with me all the way up until, well, all the way up until the film Rental Family.

• 32:37Speaker 04

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• 33:55Josh Horowitz?

  So, um, they're gonna drag me out of here if I don't bring up the mummy. So I'm gonna bring up the mummy, Brendan. It's just contractual.

• 34:05Josh Horowitz?

  I mean, this is a film that was big at the time, but somehow has become bigger and bigger, and is now like one of these like perennials. It's kind of, you can't even wish for something like this.

• 34:16Speaker 01

  Go figure, right?

• 34:17Josh Horowitz?

  Go figure. And it was, as you've talked about this to a degree, but like, nobody really knew what it was going to be. Like, tonally, it was kind of a lot of things.

• 34:28Speaker 01

  It was an action picture. It was a romance. It was a drama. It was a horror film. It was a comedy. It was, it was a smorgasbord of all of that. And while we were shooting it, I can still hear Rachel saying, "Oh no, they're going to confiscate our equity cards."

• 34:48Josh Horowitz?

  Which was a joke, but not a joke.

• 34:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, in a sort of, "Well, um, let's just, you know, carry on." And, um, we didn't know what this film would do, or, we had fond hopes that, you know, we would find an audience, but, um, I guess it landed because they had us back 18 months later to do another one. Because if it worked once, you know, you might as well do it again, right?

• 35:12Josh Horowitz?

  So what was Rachel saying on the second one?

• 35:14Speaker 01

  Um, she was saying, "Where's my trailer?"

• 35:18Speaker 01

  No, no, she wasn't.

• 35:20Josh Horowitz?

  What was, I mean, in terms of like your guiding light on that, in terms of how to play that kind of quintessential hero? I mean, are you thinking Indiana Jones? Or you think, what do you?

• 35:29Speaker 01

  Sure. I mean, that was, those, I loved those films. Who didn't? They were, they were staples of my childhood. And I also, as a kid, I loved, I loved like Ray Harryhausen movies, you know? The, the scene where Rick is battling, uh, mummies at the end was completely inspired by, you know, claymation stop motion animation from, um, and this was Stephen Sommers, uh, who made sure that we knew, knew where he was coming from. And, uh, you know, I loved that sort of like hidden little gem in there, you know, that sort of agenda that lets you know that we're, we're really here to have fun. That's the most important thing. I mean, yeah, you, you have to invest in it and believe.

• 36:12Speaker 01

  In the reality of whatever the situation or the scene or the environment calls for, because at that time CGI was something that was very expensive and if it wasn't done by a certain standard, people could go, "Uh-uh, I don't believe that. I saw the seams around the edge." And so Steven was very adamant to have ILM and John Burton there to create the creature as being formidable and cool and a little bit sexy but dangerous, you know. He would say, "Yeah, this is Jaws. You know, he's not gonna quit. It's Terminator Mummy." You know, that's his inspiration for it. And hey, you know, if we believed

• 36:56Speaker 01

  it, then CGI artists could track in their part, so there's a little bit of a collaboration element to it. And if that worked, then an audience would believe it.

• 37:08Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, if you don't feel the stakes from an audience, the air goes out of the picture.

• 37:12Speaker 01

  If we don't believe it, then an audience doesn't believe it. In other words, you know, why are you there? Let's go Marlon instead or something else, you know?

• 37:18Josh Horowitz?

  Can we credit you with Dwayne Johnson's acting career in an indirect way? We can, kind of, Brendan.

• 37:24Speaker 01

  Well, he is a performer. Absolutely. He can entertain, he did entertain stadiums full of people by lifting his eyebrow. And he did. And he had so much more to him. And yeah, you know, pugilism is its own performance. And, you know, fake fighting has its own value for, you know, take it for what it is. But I know for a fact that Dwayne is, he has the heart of an actor in him. And if you haven't seen Smashing Book, Smashing, forgive me, I was just thinking about the book. Like, don't read the book.

• 38:02Josh Horowitz?

  If you get one thing out of that, don't read it.

• 38:05Speaker 01

  Smashing Machine, thank you. Josh, check it out. I think he gives a formidable performance and he's definitely come into his own. But he does say, hey, you know, thank you for...

• 38:17Josh Horowitz?

  He's very open in crediting you for helping.

• 38:20Speaker 01

  We chatted about this the other day for Variety, actors on actors.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  After like forty-five minutes or so, they they pulled the plug on us and we told everyone to just get lost because we want to keep just shooting the breeze here.

• 38:35Josh Horowitz?

  Amazing.

• 38:36Speaker 01

  He's a real good guy and and and this performance is is, well, for one thing, it's absolutely put him in the conversation for all this awards pomp and circumstance. That's that's for real.

• 38:51Josh Horowitz?

  In the two thousands, you kept very, very busy. A lot of opportunities, a lot of exciting roles. And there's there's some famous ones you've talked about a little bit, like, like many an actor, but it's still a small club. You, I think you wore the Superman costume.

• 39:03Speaker 01

  I did.

• 39:04Josh Horowitz?

  At some point. You were up for, was it JJ's or Brett Ratner's?

• 39:07Speaker 01

  JJ. Yeah, Brett Ratner directed it.

• 39:09Josh Horowitz?

  Or he was going to direct it, yeah.

• 39:11Speaker 01

  Well, he directed the screen test.

• 39:13Josh Horowitz?

  I see. I see. So, so how did that feel? Because you've you've said it didn't quite feel right to you at the time, or what?

• 39:20Speaker 01

  Oh, I loved that screenplay. They they let me read it. They locked me in a empty office in, I don't know, some studio lot, signed an NDA. It was printed black on crimson paper, so you couldn't photocopy it or sneak it out the door, you know, in case you sleep. But it was, I mean, it was Shakespeare in space. It was a really good, good screenplay. It really was. So, but, yes, I was considered. I did do a screen test. I did wear, I did wear the big guy suit.

• 39:50Josh Horowitz?

  I sneak a photo? Is there is there a photo in existence?

• 39:53Speaker 01

  No, that was anathema. Thou shalt not. That was pretty clear to me. They were watching you.

• 40:04Josh Horowitz?

  So how did it feel in the moment? Was it was it an exciting, I mean?

• 40:07Speaker 01

  If I if I think about it, I can remember feeling, you know, you feel a little certain anxiety anyway when you're, you know, going up on some big job. But I also remember thinking, hmm, if I do get this job, then, well, I think Superman's going to be chipped on my gravestone, you know? Like, there's an element of you are that for the rest of your days, your career. I mean, it's, and that's not a bad thing. It's not, I'm not saying that's going to kill me anytime soon. But, you know, it it is something that becomes part of your entire brand, your who you are. And I don't know if I was ready to take that on then. I mean, I felt I was because of, you know, big opportunity and excitement, et cetera, et cetera, but.

• 40:52Speaker 01

  I don't know, like, like, like, like the, the, the Irish director that I worked with, whose name I'm forgetting at the moment, Terry George, once said, "If it's not for you, then it'll pass you by. If it's not for you, it'll pass you by." And it wasn't for me.

• 41:10Josh Horowitz?

  It worked out for everybody. It's all good. And then, I want to jump to The Whale. We referenced it earlier, but it's such a, remains a remarkable performance. And, and, I mean, a lot of people made it out to be this comeback. You were working. You were, you've always been working. There's never been, like, you are a working actor. How did it sit with you when it was kind of like, that was the narrative, like Brendan's comeback? Did you take it in the spirit it was?

• 41:33Speaker 01

  I was glad there'd just be in the narrative.

• 41:36Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 41:37Speaker 01

  When, when that film was shot, it was just, well, it was during our collective experience with existentialism, during COVID, before vaccines came out. And so Darren, Darren Aronofsky directed, had a set built in Newburgh, in the lower half of what's now Motorcycle Museum, in a flexible space. And it was Charlie's apartment, you know, built one-to-one scale, with such incredible detail that it really looked lived in by this unique man. And every day that we came to shoot that, the stakes were high enough

• 42:19Speaker 01

  because of the collective experience we were having globally, we were, well, I was, we were all wondering if there would be a tomorrow, so to speak. So, hmm. I think that, that focus gave me the impetus to believe what Ian McKellen told me, which is, it's the first time, the last time you will ever do this again. So, I gave it everything I knew how to, some things I didn't know how, some things I didn't know I had in me that Darren got out of me. But I do know that when we, when I wrapped that, that show, I remember thinking...

• 43:04Speaker 01

  Well, if this movie doesn't find its audience, and I get tarred and feathered for, you know, whichever reasons that, you know, those negative voices that speak in your ear sometimes, then, fair enough. I really don't know what I'm doing because I am all out of moves. I didn't know what else I could have put into that role. So, in a sense, I felt like I had nothing to lose going forward. And it turned out that, um, the story of a man who, who has a superpower for bringing out the good in others, if there is such a thing, it was this man.

• 43:48Speaker 01

  Um, it, it spoke to audiences in a way that made them reconsider what it is that we think about others whom we may automatically hold, we may automatically have disdain for. And in a way, it did find also a way of making, making, making medicine out of that poison. So, um, I, I, I'm glad for having had the experience. It was, uh, I mean, the, the makeup call was several hours at least. That all of that kit was elaborately created by Adrian Moreau,

• 44:33Speaker 01

  who was, at that time, using, um, because it was COVID, we were all scanning with iPads. He took the data, created Charlie virtually, and from there did his voodoo magic and ran, uh, it through a 3D printer to create the appliances so that they would be absolutely, um, they would be perfect from day to day to day because Charlie's health deteriorates over the course of the film. So, hey, look, long story short.

• 45:04Speaker 01

  Darren brought together a group of people and we made a film that is lightning in a bottle because I don't know if you could make that movie now the same way.

• 45:15Josh Horowitz?

  The circumstances in a weird way contributed. It's yeah, there are a few films that, and I'm not alone here, that have made me ugly cry like watching The Whale.

• 45:25Speaker 01

  Thank you, you're only as good as the people you work with. That was Sadie Sink, who I believe I just read who's gonna be doing Juliet.

• 45:34Josh Horowitz?

  Yes, I'm on Juliet in London, yeah.

• 45:36Speaker 01

  Right, director Inka, I believe?

• 45:40Josh Horowitz?

  Sounds right, yeah.

• 45:40Speaker 01

  I believe so, yes, who's, um, uh, he's produced onstage with Mark Strong right now.

• 45:48Josh Horowitz?

  Oedipus.

• 45:48Speaker 01

  Thank you. So, good on you Sadie, you're doing what I knew that she would from just being in front of, I mean, I'll say this young woman, I mean, she was a kid then, I had a front row seat to watch how incredible she is. Oh my goodness, I, I was always forgetting my lines for instance, you know, and she had such exactitude and, and spirit to her that she's really what we look for in a natural born actor.

• 46:24Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 46:24Speaker 01

  Right there.

• 46:26Josh Horowitz?

  Uh, you're very generous in talking about the actors.

• 46:28Speaker 01

  I'm just telling you like it is.

• 46:29Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 46:31Josh Horowitz?

  Well, they're not here to reciprocate. Sadie would say good things too, man. Not you, just saying. So, since the Oscar win, I mean, you've made this, Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese, that's the opportunity any actor would relish. Has it been interesting to kind of navigate like this next act in a career coming off of the Oscar win, maybe new opportunities or not? What has it felt like in the wake of The Whale?

• 46:57Speaker 01

  Well, um...

• 47:00Josh Horowitz?

  We're obviously at a strange point in the industry, but...

• 47:02Speaker 01

  That's, there's that too. I think right now...

• 47:09Speaker 01

  It sounds like, it seems like, I think you need to do work that people want to see. And the question is, well, what is that? I don't know the answer, but I know what it is when I see it.

• 47:26Josh Horowitz?

  Yep.

• 47:27Speaker 01

  And whatever my interpretation of it becomes, or collaboration, whichever director. Rental Family is an example of that. It really is. Thank you.

• 47:41Speaker 01

  I was, I saw the script before any of the, you know, awards, anything that year in 23. And it's all in the title. It stood out right there. Like, what is a rental family, you know? And when I found out more about it from meeting Hikari and the elements involved to create this film, I had a feeling that it was gonna be something special because, for one thing, the only villain in the movie Rental Family is apathy, if you ask me.

• 48:20Speaker 01

  Can anyone else think of a villain that you might have seen? I don't know. I don't, I don't, I don't know. And there has to be an obstacle in dramatic structure, right? Well, maybe not always. Maybe, maybe it's an internal struggle to have it come, to overcome. And, well, if I'm correct, then our director, Hikari, has found a way to make that movie.

• 48:44Josh Horowitz?

  Well.

• 48:48Josh Horowitz?

  At this point, is there, is there a director that's eluded you? Is there someone that, that you've always kind of been waiting for the call or tried to manifest? Like, who's on the shortlist for you at this point? Scorsese was probably there, so you knocked that one off.

• 49:00Speaker 01

  Well, gosh, when that offer came in, I was like, Fraser? Brendan Fraser?

• 49:07Speaker 01

  So check that box.

• 49:12Speaker 01

  Can I go back in time?

• 49:13Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 49:14Speaker 01

  Like Ford, or something like that is what I would have liked to have done.

• 49:17Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, okay.

• 49:20Josh Horowitz?

  A lot of folks out there, and I know you're probably not gonna be able to say anything, but I'm obligated, wanna see you in a Mummy sequel. And there is indeed, talk, real talk out there, if you believe the news, that a filmmaking group called Radio Silence, very talented, is directing a Mummy sequel, and that you may be involved. If I'm putting money on this, Brendan, am I gonna cash out? Am I gonna make money on Brendan Fraser returning to the Mummy franchise?

• 49:44Speaker 01

  You cough once for yes, twice for no.

• 49:45Josh Horowitz?

  Exactly. Exactly.

• 49:51Josh Horowitz?

  One cough!

• 50:00Speaker 01

  Settle down.

• 50:02Josh Horowitz?

  He didn't say anything, guys. Here's my one follow-up. I mean, if that were to happen, at some point, last time you shot one of those, you're a 40-year-old man, and like, the stunts are real, man. That's, is that a consideration?

• 50:15Speaker 01

  Absolutely. That's what they have stuntmen for.

• 50:23Speaker 01

  One of my favorite things to say is, dude, you're gonna be awesome in this shot.

• 50:31Speaker 01

  Really? Okay.

• 50:34Speaker 01

  Brendan said so.

• 50:37Josh Horowitz?

  I only do this with actors that have amazing filmographies. This is gonna be tough on you, Brendan, but I'm gonna make you pick the greatest Brendan Fraser movie of all time. I'm gonna pick some movies against each other. This is just for today. This is in the moment, right now. Gut, okay? We're gonna anoint the top one. Encino Man versus School Ties.

• 50:58Speaker 01

  I'm a School Ties man. A School Ties man.

• 51:00Josh Horowitz?

  Okay, School Ties. Uh, Mummy versus George of the Jungle.

• 51:05Josh Horowitz?

  Okay, alright. We're all on the same team, guys.

• 51:12Speaker 01

  I'm sorry, I just short-circuited.

• 51:17Speaker 01

  I'm gonna go with the Mummy.

• 51:18Josh Horowitz?

  Okay.

• 51:21Josh Horowitz?

  Gods and Monsters versus The Quiet American.

• 51:24Speaker 01

  Man, you play dirty.

• 51:25Josh Horowitz?

  I know, I know, it's rough. It's rough.

• 51:30Speaker 01

  For its relevancy to our everyday world about politics and meddling in it and staying out of it, I'm gonna stay away from the quiet America. I'm gonna go with gods and monsters.

• 51:43Josh Horowitz?

  Okay, okay.

• 51:44Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 51:45Josh Horowitz?

  Crash versus the whale.

• 51:47Speaker 01

  The whale.

• 51:49Josh Horowitz?

  Okay, now, we have school ties versus the mummy.

• 51:56Speaker 01

  I'm gonna have to change a spark plug in. The mummy, the mummy.

• 52:00Josh Horowitz?

  Okay.

• 52:01Speaker 01

  Everybody like the mummy.

• 52:02Josh Horowitz?

  And then gods and monsters versus the whale.

• 52:08Speaker 01

  The whale.

• 52:10Josh Horowitz?

  And for all the marbles, Brendan. The whale versus the mummy.

• 52:28Speaker 01

  Forgive me, Darren, for I have sent the mummy.

• 52:36Josh Horowitz?

  There are no wrong answers. Everybody won. Um, we end Happy Sad Confused this podcast and mine with a profoundly random questions. You ready, Brendan?

• 52:44Speaker 01

  As I ever will be.

• 52:46Josh Horowitz?

  Dogs or cats?

• 52:47Speaker 01

  Dogs.

• 52:50Josh Horowitz?

  Like the murmurs. Do you collect anything? What do you collect?

• 52:55Speaker 01

  Oh, archery supplies, arrows.

• 52:57Josh Horowitz?

  Really? Okay. That's a new one. Do you have a favorite video game of all time?

• 53:02Speaker 01

  Oh, hell yes. It's Zelda Breath of the Wild. Not to be outdone by Tears of the Kingdom.

• 53:09Josh Horowitz?

  Oh.

• 53:10Speaker 01

  And by the way, if anybody knows how to get more bomb flowers.

• 53:15Josh Horowitz?

  Still a gamer to this day, or was that?

• 53:17Speaker 01

  Oh, heck yeah. Um, I was charging up my Nintendo Switch on the bedside table in my hotel room as we speak. As I wore it out on the plane that way.

• 53:27Josh Horowitz?

  What's the most amount of hours, what game have you spent the most time?

• 53:30Speaker 01

  It probably would be Zelda.

• 53:33Josh Horowitz?

  Uh, the Dakota Johnson memorial question, she asked me this, I ask everybody, would you rather have a mouthful of bees or one bee in your butt?

• 53:40Speaker 01

  Ooh, wow.

• 53:43Speaker 01

  I'm gonna go with the butt bee.

• 53:45Josh Horowitz?

  Yep.

• 53:47Josh Horowitz?

  What's the wallpaper on your phone?

• 53:49Speaker 01

  My son, Holden, who's at NYU. He's in his third year at film school now. And darn, he is handsome.

• 54:00Josh Horowitz?

  Where'd he get that from?

• 54:03Speaker 01

  The FedEx guy?

• 54:08Josh Horowitz?

  The last actor you were mistaken for was...

• 54:11Speaker 01

  Was, uh...

• 54:14Speaker 01

  I still don't know who this guy is. Because I was doing a reshoot with, uh... For Harold Ramus's film, Bedazzled. It was... Thanks. And there was a sequence that the studio thought was too hot for an audience. Because it, uh... Just real quickly, it's the story of Faust, Faustus. And Elliot makes a deal with the devil.

• 54:40Speaker 01

  Who's, uh, uh, uh, tricking him at every turn. And, uh, he... Liz Hurley plays the devil, by the way. You know, perks of the job, right? And, uh, she says, "You know what you need? You need to be a bad boy. That's what you want." He says, "Yeah, I wanna be really famous." And so she goes, "All right, you got it." And suddenly, there's a... He's a rock star. And they filled a stadium in Los Angeles with rockers. And we did a rock number. And we went backstage. It was like Spile Tap. And the studio saw it. And I don't know, they must've like wet their pants or something. They was like, "No, we can't put that out there." And they said, "No, you have to reshoot that scene." And I was disappointed because I thought it was really pretty cool. It's probably... It's an Easter egg. You can find it somewhere.

• 55:25Speaker 01

  Anyway, um, so instead, I was gonna be Abraham Lincoln. Yeah, on that day, you know, other than that, how was the show? Mrs. Lincoln moment? And, uh, so if you've seen the movie, then yeah, that's what happens. Elliot becomes Abraham Lincoln. So I had to get full-on transformational prosthetic makeup on. And I was in the car being driven to our set. I was in London at the time in England, shooting, uh, the second Mummy movie. And we were shooting in Richmond at this little old Victorian theater. And they were stopping, you know, traffic in the neighborhood to let cars in or out if you belonged or if you didn't. And we pulled up and there was a cop there. And he said, uh, he said, "Stop, stop." You know, and I was in the back, tricked out like Lincoln.

• 56:10Speaker 01

  With the full-on stove hat and everything. And my driver Nigel, who's quite a wind-up kind of guy, he said, "Who's in this movie?" And the cop says, "Oh, yeah, oh, what's his name? Uh, it's, uh, Robert Marksen." I was like, "What? No, it's not. Who the hell is Robert Marksen?" But, like, he couldn't fi- Bob's- "It was me." I'm like, "It's Brendan Fraser." But I'm wearing Lincoln makeup, and he doesn't believe me because I don't look like Brendan Fraser.

• 56:54Speaker 01

  So I guess in a way, I got mistaken for myself.

• 57:00Josh Horowitz?

  And Robert Marksen went on to become...

• 57:04Speaker 01

  An alias.

• 57:07Speaker 01

  Because now I will never use again.

• 57:08Josh Horowitz?

  Exactly. What's the worst noted director has ever given you, Brendan?

• 57:13Speaker 01

  Um, the worst note? Oh, the worst note, um...

• 57:20Speaker 01

  I try to filter those out, to be honest.

• 57:22Josh Horowitz?

  What's not helpful? What don't you want to...

• 57:25Speaker 01

  Um, oh, yeah, well, it's Stephen Summers in The Mummy. He would say, he'd set up a shot, a big one, and he'd go, "Ready and... Don't suck! Action!" Running, crashing, camels exploding, you know. I was like, "Really? Do you think I'm gonna choose right now to not suck?

• 57:48Speaker 01

  Or to suck?"

• 57:52Josh Horowitz?

  And finally, Brendan, in the spirit of Happy Sad Confused, an actor who always makes you happy, you see them on screen, you're in a better mood, would be?

• 58:00Speaker 01

  Japlin.

• 58:02Josh Horowitz?

  Nice.

• 58:03Speaker 01

  Lester Keaton.

• 58:08Speaker 01

  Any of the silent film stars, pretty much. And I'm always glad to see Bugs Bunny. Who I've worked with.

• 58:17Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, yeah.

• 58:18Speaker 01

  And he's actually a really cool guy.

• 58:20Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, I've heard that.

• 58:22Speaker 01

  On the other hand, Daffy Duck's an asshole.

• 58:26Josh Horowitz?

  A movie that makes you sad always brings you to tears.

• 58:30Speaker 01

  Oh, um, I'm not gonna say Old Yeller. No, a movie that's sad that always brings me to tears is, um...

• 58:42Speaker 01

  Old Yeller, no. I don't know if I have one of those, honest. But I... Then again, I cry when I see shaving commercials, so...

• 58:52Josh Horowitz?

  Okay, so the bar is low.

• 58:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's pretty low. I'm a pushover.

• 58:55Josh Horowitz?

  And a food that makes you confused, Brendan. You don't get it, why do people eat that food?

• 59:00Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, that one's called Natto.

• 59:03Josh Horowitz?

  I don't know what that is. Tell me.

• 59:06Speaker 01

  It's a Japanese food. It's soybeans fermented. And it's got this consistency of little lumps. And it sort of has tendrils that come from when you stretch it apart. I mean, it's really cool looking, but...

• 59:19Josh Horowitz?

  Sure.

• 59:19Speaker 01

  It smells like acid. Why would you wanna put that in your mouth? I'm like, I hear it's very healthy for you, though. So, respect to those who live for the Natto. I am not a Natto man.

• 59:30Josh Horowitz?

  Everything else about Japanese culture, we love. We're celebrating it with Rental Family.

• 59:34Speaker 01

  That and poi in Hawaii. Is that what it's called? Poi, the sort of bitter, white, goopy...

• 59:43Josh Horowitz?

  So it's consistency, it's weird with...

• 59:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think it's that. Flavors and weird consistencies, yeah, that's not what I knew.

• 59:48Josh Horowitz?

  Fair enough. We're gonna end positive. This movie is fantastic. Congratulations.

• 59:54Josh Horowitz?

  I want you guys, I know you will, spread the good word. Movies like this need support. Tell five friends. Rental Family in theaters November 21st. And, man, thank you so much for sharing your career, your life with us. Continued success to the one and only Brendan Fraser, everybody. Thank you.

• 1:00:33Speaker 05

  And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley and I definitely wasn't pressured to do this by Josh.

• 1:00:53Speaker 06

  It's the feeling of escapism, the call of glory that drives us to build fantastic worlds, yet some grow darker than others.

• 1:00:59Speaker 05

  Dark Dice is the improvised horror podcast diving into the depths of madness and

• 1:01:04Speaker 06

  the corrupt divine in a fantasy realm of terror. Wayward souls who dare risk their characters at our table bring our stories to crawling life. Enhanced with award-winning soundscapes and music, Dark Dice mixes the role of the dice with the drive to survive. So join us and hear the horrors of Dark Dice wherever you listen to podcasts.