Yahoo News Brendan Fraser says 'my bad' for George of the Jungle stunt 25 years later
A half-joking, half-serious Brendan Fraser issued an apology to the entire city of San Francisco for his 1997 film George of the Jungle, particularly one scene shot on the Bay Bridge.
At the Mill Valley Film Festival in California on Oct. 13, Fraser recalled the sequence in which his Tarzan-like George climbs atop the bridge to rescue a tangled parachuter. The production halted traffic at the time and may have led some local newscasters to believe the incident was real.
Everett Collection Brendan Fraser apologizes to the city of San Francisco for that 'George of the Jungle' bridge stunt.
"When we were doing George of the Jungle, George goes to rescue a parachutist tangled in the Golden Gate Bridge," Fraser told SFGATE, actor mistakenly referring to the Golden Gate Bridge instead of the Bay Bridge. "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," he 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."
Here's the scene in question.
Fraser addressed the incident again later that night as he accepted a lifetime achievement award at the festival, in light of his new movie The Whale.
"So, that said, my bad," he remarked. "It won't happen again."
Fraser has been taking more notice of his past work thanks in part to the career resurgence he's enjoyed because of The Whale, in which he plays a reclusive gay man affected by severe obesity. He reunited with actress Elizabeth Hurley, his costar in 2000's Bedazzled, at a recent red carpet event. He has also been asked about his role in The Mummy movies.
Speaking of the Tom Cruise-fronted reboot, which failed to warrant a sequel, Fraser mentioned, "It is hard to make that movie. The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn't see in that film, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie."
Now let's do the Monkeybone appreciation tour!
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