Our friends over at VoicesFromKrypton.com have snagged an awesome audio interview with Brendan Fraser where they probed his thoughts about the J.J. Abrams' Superman script, and learned how close he got to the part...
AUDIO: Head HERE to Hear!
Here are a few interesting bits in written form...
Ed Gross: Even though it didn't work out in the end, what did it feel like putting on the Superman costume?
Brendan Fraser: AWESOME! AWWWWWSOME! That was the Man of Steel outfit!
Ed: And when the rumor came out that you were screen testing, I told my wife...
B.F.: They offered it to me!
Ed: They offered it to you?
B.F.: They offered it to me and half the dudes in town! That's just the history of the way that role has gone.
Ed: It's so funny, I told my wife at the time I could see Brendan as Superman... He could absolutely pull off Clark Kent and Superman easily. And you must have felt that way too, I would imagine.
B.F.: I was so enthusiastic to do it, my teeth were sweating. Are you kidding me? This is the Man of Steel! ...and you have to take into account, and in the research I did for it, it seems to me that each actor that played that role came from relative obscurity. The men who played that role were doing radio plays, or soap operas, and THAT role (Superman) became who they were identified as for the rest of their days. And that's a big decision to have to make for an actor.
Ed: But you were so established before that.
B.F.: It's still a roll of the dice my friend. My crystal ball is broken. You don't know that. And so I had to think about it HARD. And during the time that I was thinking about it, which took me all of 28 minutes, it seems as if then the big monster studio machine and all the machinations behind it, all the cogs and wheels rolling, suddenly it went from an "offer" to "subject to a screen test" blah, blah, blah, "subject to approval" and... But there is one or two really cool things that came out of it. One, there does exist a screen test somewhere, that hopefully will show up sometime, and two, I had sight of the J.J. Abrams script. I read it.
Ed: I think I downloaded it from the Internet at one time, is it good?
B.F. In my view, and I say this with respect, it's far superior than Bryan Singers. J.J. had a vision that was larger. It spanned galaxies. It was Lord of the Rings. I mean, it was that huge. It was like a 3rd World War on Earth involving different planets and universes, and brotherhoods--sibling rivalry and the collision of enormous powers. I mean, come on, it wasn't smacking you over the head with a symbolic hammer till you weren't paying attention. That's how good J.J. is.
For the rest of this interesting interview, head on over to VoicesFromKrypton.com.