24 Years After The Mummy Returns, The Rock Credits Brendan Fraser With Launching His Career

Dwayne Johnson is still giving Brendan Fraser his flowers, 24 years after The Mummy Returns. And honestly, he should. Without Fraser, there is a very real chance The Rock never becomes, well, The Rock we know in movies.

What Johnson said

On the New Heights podcast, Johnson made a point of crediting Fraser for how that first big break went down. He rolled into The Mummy Returns with zero acting experience and could have easily been treated like a gimmick in someone else’s franchise. Instead, Fraser welcomed him in.

"He was one of the biggest stars in the world. That was his franchise. I am coming in, I have never acted before... He could have easily said, 'I don’t know if I want this wrestler.' Instead, he embraced me... and he helped kick off my career."

How that movie set everything in motion

The Mummy Returns (2001) was Johnson’s first film. A year later, it spun him off into his first starring role with the prequel The Scorpion King (2002). He played Mathayus, aka the Scorpion King, an ancient warrior who cuts a deal with Anubis for the power to crush his enemies. Jump ahead thousands of years: that same mythic bruiser resurfaces and ends up clashing with Fraser’s Rick O’Connell while Rick is trying to save his wife Evelyn, played by Rachel Weisz.

From franchise machine to dramatic swing

• First film: The Mummy Returns (2001)
• First lead: The Scorpion King (2002)
• Blockbuster run: Fast and Furious, Jumanji, the DCEU
• Now: The Smashing Machine, a Mark Kerr biopic directed by Benny Safdie, is out in theaters
• Next up: An untitled Martin Scorsese movie, with Johnson playing a Hawaiian crime boss

So yeah, the arc from first-time actor in someone else’s sequel to headlining a Benny Safdie drama and stepping into a Scorsese crime story is pretty wild. And Johnson still circling back to say thanks to Fraser after all this time? That part rules.