That Brendan Fraser has talent has never been a question. He got the ability, the look and the charm to be a legitimate A list actor in Hollywood someday soon. But the thing that I’ve personally noticed the most about Fraser is how highly everyone in Hollywood talks about him as a person and his character. USA Weekend Magazine did an interview with him where this really comes out. Among other things, Brendan talks about the chances of him being the next Superman.
Superman would be both interesting and heroic, and Fraser is giving thought to playing him. “I’m not sure that film is going to get made, so stay tuned,” he says. But he might like the role if the timing is right. The problem? “The actor who plays that role is forevermore identified as that character. Is it right for me? I don’t know.”
What is right for him is his family life in Los Angeles. While Hollywood peers are visiting strip clubs, entering rehab or conducting extramarital affairs, Fraser is a happily married homebody and a gushing new dad. “My heart is expanded nth-fold times 20 to the power of a million 10,” he says, showing me on his cellphone a picture of his red-headed boy. But he’s a practical dad as well — one who, because he’s had time off, can take Griffin to play dates or baby gym classes, or just hang out with him at home.
Fraser met his wife, Afton Smith, soon after he arrived in L.A. after his 1990 graduation from Seattle’s Cornish College of the Arts. It was at a barbecue at Winona Ryder’s house, and he was instantly smitten. “I knew I could combine my personal and professional ambitions and have a friend to be with in her. Five years later she did me the honor of being my wife.”
That’s typical of the reverential way in which he speaks of his wife. “He loves her so much,” says Jenna Elfman, his “Looney Tunes” co-star. “It’s very beautiful to watch a man’s love for his wife be expressed so tenderly. After the baby was born. I’d ask, ‘How’s she doing?’ and he’d say, ‘She’s feeling very tired, but I’ve never seen her look so beautiful’ — and she wasn’t right there.”
Read the whole interview here.
