It is quite common in Hollywood nowadays for actors and studios to get in trouble with audiences for what they put in their films. This is, even more, the case when it comes to parents concerned about what their children see and learn from films targeted towards their age group. While most parents would go online to share their concerns, some have gone as far as to get in direct contact with those involved in the project, including the actors themselves.
Brendan Fraser, best known for his work in The Whale, The Mummy, and Journey to the Center of the Earth, had a similar experience for his work in his 2001 George of the Jungle, where he had parents approaching him, telling him their complaints about his behavior in the film.
Why Were Parents Upset At Brendan Fraser For His Work In George of the Jungle?
In his film, George of the Jungle, Brendan Fraser’s character is a Tarzan-like man who lives in the forest and uses vines to swing face-first into trees. During an interview, the actor revealed that parents of children who had watched the movie would approach him on the street and tell him that they were upset about this element in his film.
“For a while there, parents were stopping me going, ‘Oh, man, I really loved you in George of the Jungle, it was such a great movie. I have a bone to pick with you, my kid got eight stitches.'” to which he would say, “Rubber trees, George smashed into rubber trees!”
The reason for this was the fact that many children had seen this in the film and tried to swing into actual trees and get hurt. While the actor would be surprised at this and explain to them that while he did do those scenes, he smashed into rubber trees and not real ones.
Brendan Fraser’s Health Was Affected While Working On George of the Jungle
It is quite surprising that this was the element of George of the Jungle that made parents upset at Brendan Fraser and not the fact that the actor ‘starved himself’ for the role. During an interview, the actor revealed that the role of George was so physically taxing for him, requiring him to have a very extensive and difficult physical regime, that his brain started to ‘misfire’.
“I would drive home after work and stop to get something to eat. And I needed some cash one day, and I went to the ATM, and I could not remember my PIN number because my brain was misfiring,” he went, stating that this was when he “banging on the” ATM machine.
The actor talked about an incident where he remembers this happening, talking about the time when he wanted to eat some food after a long day shooting and needed to withdraw some cash. When Fraser went into an ATM to do exactly that, he, somehow, forgot his pin, and the actor suddenly started banging on the machine.
Source: MovieWeb
