Brendan Fraser has been one busy man — but while traveling the press circuit to promote his role in "The Whale," he took a brief detour to the past.
The actor, who was nominated for his first Academy Award for "The Whale" on Tuesday, dropped by a London theater on Jan. 20 to give a surprise introduction for some of his earlier work, Variety reported: "The Mummy" (1999) and "The Mummy Returns" (2001).
Naturally, the audience gave him a standing ovation.
"I am proud to stand before you tonight," Fraser, 54, told the surprised crowd at the Prince Charles Cinema. "(The Mummy) is a film that was made in Britain. You should know that! Even the second one, too. Be proud.
“We had no idea what kind of movie we were making when we shot this,” he continued at the London screening. “We didn’t know if it was a drama or a comedy or an action or a horror picture or a romance … all the above. We had no idea until it tested in front of British audiences. Thank you for that.”
Fraser-mania has reached new heights since "The Whale" came out, in which he plays a 600 pound wheelchair-bound gay man. Crowds leapt to their feet at the Venice International Film Festival in September after watching the Darren Aronofsky film, and their six-minute standing ovation had the star in tears.
He also won the best actor award at the Critics Choice awards earlier in January, and the Toronto International Film Festival's Tribute Award for the role.