Brendan Fraser On The Exact Moment He Knew Rachel Weisz Was Perfect For The Mummy: ‘She Was Right’
Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz had the kind of on-screen chemistry in The Mummy that rivaled the best romantic comedies, and it is why, even more than thirty years later, fans are ecstatic that Universal made a third sequel officially in the works. Rick O’Connell and Evelyn Carnahan worked because they were funny, stubborn and wildly capable in very different ways, with Evie refusing to be reduced to a damsel in distress. According to Fraser, it did not take long for Weisz to prove she understood Evelyn on a deeper level than the people in the room who were trying to cast her. In fact, there was one specific moment he knew ‘she was right’ for the role.
During a C2E2 panel (via Popverse) ahead of The Mummy 4, Fraser recalled doing a chemistry read with Weisz at Universal Studios and realizing she had already found the character’s spine. He explained:
I was hired already. I came into Universal Studios for a meeting and the casting director wanted to have a chemistry read. We put two actors together, point a camera at them and say, ‘Well, what do they look like.’ So we did this, and we’re reading the sides to each other, and the casting director is doing the casting director thing.
The George of the Jungle star said the scene involved deciphering a treasure map. The real reveal came when the casting director gave the British actress a note about what Evie wanted. As the Whale performer tells it:
We were reading a scene about getting treasure deciphered. It was a scene that didn’t make it into the movie. And the casting director gave Rachel a note and said, ‘Can you make more out of what she really wants to have about getting the treasure.’ And Rachel looked right back at her and said, ‘No, actually, she really doesn’t want the treasure at all. She just wants to feel empowered. She just wants this guy to take her seriously.’ And she was right too. That was the thrust of her whole character. She’s going to do right by herself. She’s going to upset the boundaries.
The scene did not ultimately did not make it into the finished 1999 movie, but it was pivotal for Weisz nabbing the role and Fraser understanding why she was perfect for it.
That is a fantastic little time-capsule moment because it explains why the character still works so well, even for new audiences, maybe just discovering it while streaming on their HBO Max subscription. She could have easily been written or played as the bookish love interest who gets swept into Rick O’Connell’s adventure, but instead, Weisz treated her as someone with her own hunger, her own ego and her own need to prove she belonged in rooms full of men who underestimated her.
I’m not sure how long it’s been since you have rewatched 1999’s The Mummy, but if you’ll recall, Evie is funny because she is brilliant and chaotic. She knocks things over, gets flustered, reads ancient texts, argues her case and occasionally unleashes ancient evil. The character always feels alive, usually one step away from either saving everyone or making the situation spectacularly worse. Undoubtedly, we owe that to the actress who brought her to the big screen.
Rachel Weisz’s Return Makes The New Mummy Movie More Interesting
Weisz is expected to return for the recently announced Mummy 4. Per reports, the untitled sequel is set to hit theaters on May 19, 2028. The franchise has tried to move forward without OG Evie in the role before, but the absence of The Lobster actress was hard to ignore in the much-maligned third flick, The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
Honestly, I do feel her chemistry with Fraser helped define the original film and The Mummy Returns. To me, Rick and Evie worked because neither one felt like a passenger in the other’s story. He had the survival instincts, and she had the knowledge, drive and nerve to chase the impossible into a cursed city.
The Doom Patrol actor’s anecdote proves that the dynamic was present between the actors before cameras really started rolling, and that’s because Weisz wasn’t just trying to win the part, but was already defending Evie from being misunderstood. Man, I am so ready to see her back in this part in a fourth installment.
On a professional front, Brendan Fraser’s next big-screen outing is the 2026 movie calendar release Pressure. In the upcoming page-to-screen adaptation of the stage play, Fraser plays Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. The film hits theaters May 29, 2026.
