Brendan Fraser Missed Rachel Weisz In MUMMY 3
Even before he started shooting The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, star Brendan Fraser already felt the absence of original screen spouse Rachel Weisz.
Brendan Fraser admitted to Sci Fi Wire's CINDY WHITE and other reporters that, when he first read the script for his upcoming adventure flick, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, he missed former co-star Rachel Weisz.
"We were partners. We were colleagues," Fraser (George of the Jungle) said this week in Beverly Hills. "We were friends, and I couldn't read the screenplay and not think about hearing her say it this way or that way. We had that chemistry."
Before she was a star, and long before she was an Oscar winner, English-born Weisz (The Fountain) played Evelyn, the British love interest to Fraser's Rick O'Connell, in the first two Mummy films directed by Stephen Sommers (GI Joe). She declined to return for the new movie, which is directed by Rob Cohen (xXx) and co-stars Jet Li (Hero). John Hannah (Four Weddings & A Funeral) does reprise his role as Evey's brother, Jonathan.
There are conflicting rumors about why Weisz opted out--in one, she read the script and disliked what was done with her character; another suggests that she had other projects lined up; a third states that she wanted to stay home with her young child. Fraser claimed not to know the reason, but he said that he supports her decision.
He then went on to sing the praises of the new Evey, American thespian Maria Bello (A History of Violence).
"She's sexy, and she's bad news with her Winchester rifle," Fraser said. "She played the part, rather than let it play her. She made it her own."
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor opens August 1.