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Brendan Fraser Starved Himself So Much for ‘George of the Jungle’ That His Memory Got Screwed: ‘My Brain Was Misfiring’

Zack Sharf
·3 min read

“Airheads” co-stars Brendan Fraser and Adam Sandler reunited as part of Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, but it was Fraser’s follow-up role in “George of the Jungle” that really piqued Sandler’s interest. Fraser got muscular to headline the in the 1997 comedy, based on the “Tarzan”-spoofing animated series of the same name.

“The wardrobe was there was no wardrobe,” Fraser said. “George wears a loincloth.”

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Sandler said Fraser was so jacked and so good looking in “George of the Jungle” that he “was disappointed,” joking, “You weren’t supposed to do that to us. You did right by the character. But you did wrong by us, man. You made us feel bad about ourselves. Were you oiled up at all during ‘George’?”

“I was waxed. Starved of carbohydrates,” Fraser said. “I would drive home after work and stop to get something to eat. I needed some cash one day, and I went to the ATM, and I couldn’t remember my PIN number because my brain was misfiring. Banging on the thing. I didn’t eat that night.”

So there you have it, Fraser might’ve looked incredible in “George of the Jungle” but getting that muscular body screwed with his memory. The film, which also starred Leslie Mann and Thomas Hayden-Church, was a box office hit with over $170 million at the worldwide box office. “George of the Jungle” remains one of Fraser’s signature roles form the 1990s.

Earlier this year, Fraser issued a humorous apology to the city of San Francisco due to a traffic jam the “George of the Jungle” production caused over 25 years ago.

“When we were doing ‘George of the Jungle,’ George goes to rescue a parachutist tangled in the [San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge],” Fraser said. “That means Disney put a mannequin hanging by a parachute from the uprights. It brought traffic to a standstill on either side of the bridge.”

Fraser continued, “My trailer was on the other side in a parking lot. I just remember watching the Golden Gate Bridge. There’s this dummy parachutist hanging from it. I had the TV on, and ‘Oprah’ got interrupted because there was a special news report with helicopters saying a parachute is dangling on the bridge. And I’m going — wait a minute, I’m looking at the helicopters and TV — somebody didn’t pull a permit, somebody’s going to get in trouble with the mayor’s office. So I can only apologize for that.”

Watch Fraser and Sandler’s full “Actors on Actors” conversation in the video below.


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