Brendan Fraser stripped down the scene.
“The Whale” actor has revealed that he and Matt Damon were each buck naked while filming an infamous shower scene of their 1992 movie “School Ties.”
“I appreciated that this isn’t really for ‘wow’ or a scintillating factor of going, ‘Hey, have a look at that — naked people,’” Fraser, 54, said Tuesday while appearing on “The Howard Stern Show.”
Within the context of the film, Fraser plays a 17-year-old Jewish student, David Greene, who attends the fictional St. Matthew’s Academy on a football scholarship. It’s there that he meets fellow player Charlie Dillon, played by Damon. Greene hides his Jewish lineage resulting from widespread anti-semitism at the varsity, but Greene’s secret is revealed by Dillon out of jealousy — sparking the butt-baring shower brouhaha.
Fraser also admitted that he was initially scared to film the scene because the film was his first-ever project.
“While you’re an actor, and also you’re setting out, you’re ambitious and game for just about anything,” recounted Fraser. “They are saying, ‘Jump,’ you say, ‘How high?’”
In accordance with Fraser, certainly one of his co-stars helped him get comfortable.
“Chris O’Donnell — he kicked out the set photographer, who was hiding in certainly one of the toilet stalls,” joked Fraser. “‘Yeah, Peter, you’ll be able to go, thanks. You actually don’t have to be there, do you?’”
Fraser further explained the rationale behind the scene.
“The purpose of it was that when Damon’s character says what he says about David, he just reveals who he’s. His anti-Semitism and his prejudice is stripped down naked, and it’s ugly,” said Fraser. “And the door is locked they usually fight over it like shaved apes that have to be pulled apart because they’ve run out of things to say to at least one one other, and it just turns into an unpleasant knuckle-dusting fit.”
In accordance with “The Mummy” star, Damon’s natural star power helped him to get the role in the primary place.
“I just remember pondering, ‘He’s already got the job, and that is my shot here. Okay, don’t mess this up; bring things down a size,’” Fraser recalled. “I used to be used to being on stage at that time in my life and playing to the back row, and I knew that I needed to match pitch with Matt, so I felt like I used to be his wingman or something, and I believe that’s why I got hired.”
Fraser’s tale comes because the actor has seen a resurgence in popularity for his work in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” which landed him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
