After the “The Whale” premiere by Darren Aronofsky on Sunday, Brendan Fraser got a 6-minute standing ovation at the Venice International Film Festival. Many people see this as the start of Fraser’s “Brenaissance,” which is a stunning comeback to Hollywood after some rough times in his career. For others, this is a reminder of how hard things were for Fraser, like when he accused a powerful Hollywood insider of sexual assault and when his divorce from Afton Smith was a mess.
Brendan Fraser’s split from his ex-wife Afton Smith slowed down his career.
Fraser’s career was already in trouble when she accused Philip Berk, the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, of sexual assault in 2003. It took a slight push to send it into the deep end. Smith and Fraser filed for divorce in 2007. This was a few years after Fraser’s big Hollywood break with The Mummy series.
Fraser and Smith, who worked with the Canadian-American actor in “George of the Jungle” and had been married for nine years and had three kids, had a lot to work out in the divorce process. The divorce hurt Fraser’s career a little bit because it made him look like an unattractive person. At the time, his career was in trouble, and most people didn’t want to cast a man who seemed to be having a string of bad luck.
According to the New York Post, six years after their divorce and child custody agreement in 2013, Fraser went to a court in Connecticut to try to get his annual $900,000 child support payment to his ex-wife lowered. According to court records and testimony, Fraser said he didn’t expect to make any money from acting in the coming years. However, this was only because he didn’t have any solid movie deals at the time. Fraser couldn’t afford to keep paying his child support, and hiring a struggling actor for your movie is one of the riskiest things you can do.
After Fraser Tried to lower his alimony, he stopped getting big movie deals, but he did act in a few other movies.
But it wasn’t enough because he then said that the money from those movies couldn’t cover the cost of child support. In an interview with GQ, he said that his lack of funds was due to the many surgeries he had over seven years, both because of the bills he had to pay and because it limited his ability to make money in the future.
Even though her claims didn’t work, in the end, the court said that Fraser could only lower his alimony if he started making less than $3 million a year. All of the drama surrounding his divorce, his health problems, and the sexual assault claims he made led to Fraser having one of the saddest endings of any actor. Due to a sudden rise in online interest in the actor, Fraser has made a huge comeback and is now in talks to work with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
Man this makes me so happy to see this beautiful ovation for Brendan. He supported me coming into his Mummy Returns franchise for my first ever role, which kicked off my Hollywood career. Rooting for all your success brother and congrats to my bud Darren Aronofsky. #TheWhale 👏🏾 https://t.co/SNBLPHHmEZ
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) September 4, 2022
“Killers of the Flower Moon” is his most anticipated movie. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons, and Robert De Niro and is directed by a Hollywood legend, Martin Scorsese. Fraser’s career comeback seems to be going well, so things are probably getting better for him.
Brendan Fraser and Afton Smith met at a barbecue hosted by Winona Ryder.
Your Next Shoes says that Fraser and fellow actor Afton Smith started dating soon after they met at Winona Ryder’s house in 1993. At the time, the Indiana native was becoming increasingly popular in Hollywood. IMDb says that he had only been in somewhat popular movies like Encino Man and School Ties.
By the time Fraser and Smith got married in 1998, Fraser was one of Hollywood’s most bankable leading men. Smith even played in George of the Jungle, Fraser’s first big hit, which came out the summer before they married.
Fraser started making much money in Hollywood after The Mummy came out in 1999. Two sequels cemented his status as an action superstar. Smith’s last credit was George of the Jungle, which she did when Fraser seemed to be at the top of Hollywood. During their nine-year marriage, they had three sons.
Fraser’s career hit a snag before he got divorced in 2007.
In the early 2000s, Fraser’s luck began to change. Fraser was at the top of his game when he starred in The Mummy Returns with Dwayne Johnson. He knew right away that Johnson was a big deal. Even though Johnson only had a small part in the movie, she was on the press tour almost as much as Fraser. Fraser’s reaction to Johnson seems like a bad sign for their careers.
Fraser’s career hit a significant roadblock just two years after The Mummy Returns. Fraser said Philip Berk, the former head of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, sexually assaulted him in 2003. In the end, he asked Berk to apologize. But speaking out against a Hollywood insider with so much power backfired. Fraser thinks the accusation is why he got fewer job offers in the following years. Many people felt that he was unofficially banned from Hollywood.
