Latest / Mic Drop Comedy / Brendan Fraser - On Taking Risks_ Hollywood_ and His New Film _Pressure_ _ The Daily Show

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Brendan Fraser - On Taking Risks_ Hollywood_ and His New Film _Pressure_ _ The Daily Show · Mic Drop Comedy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Please welcome Brendan Fraser. They love you. They love you.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: They love you. This was the longest standing ovation anyone's
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: ever gotten. As deservedly so, Mr. Brandon Fraser. I love you.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: You're the best, man. I love you so much. I've
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: been loving you since I was a kid.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Ronnie, I'm old.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about this project. So I love this fantasy
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: World War II movie where white people join forces to
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: fight Nazis.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: I wish.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: We actually still did that.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: What leadership once looked like. Why we did that in
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: the first place.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: It moves pressure. So period piece in World War II.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: You play General Eisenhower.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I am Ike. I didn't know a lot about him
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: as a historical figure apart from the lapel pen. I
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: like Ike. In his war years, I learned that he
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: never fired a shot in anger. I was never... fired
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: at his entire career. He intended to fight the First
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: World War, but he concluded, you know, inconveniently for him,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: but over the next successive four or so years, he
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: kept getting promoted as an excellent strategist and diplomat. And
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: so when we meet Ike in the world of this film,
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: It's on the eve of D-Day. And that was originally
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: set for Monday, June 5th, 1944. And I did not
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: know when the project came my way that it was
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: postponed from inclement weather that was inbound that they really
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: only learned about that weekend before at the initiative and
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: assistance of James Crick, who Skaggs. I should know this.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Played by Andrew Scott. And he was the meteorologist. He
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: worked with the Home Office for a number of weeks
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: before then, and he was, I guess, the one who
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: had the temerity to rely on science and facts for
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: how to determine the weather when it was an age
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: when looking out the window was kind of the way
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: it was done. Yeah.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: And I've never seen a more tension-filled weather report. Then
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: this movie, I watched the whole thing, and the whole
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: time I was engaged, it was like, is this gonna
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: rain or not? I didn't know what was going to happen.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I followed this movie more than I was following the
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: weather for my outdoor wedding. The stakes were extremely high
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: in this. And you see literally the pressure building of the.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: It's not just barometric pressure that we're concerned about in
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: this world.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're right. So I mean, the story of
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: this brave weatherman who basically delayed Allied invasion of Normandy
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: to defeat the Nazis. And he made the call. And
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: as you said, it was back in the day when,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: you know, now we get weather sent to our phones
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: while we're taking a shit on the toilet. But these
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: guys had to deal with, like, paper charts and some
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: guy letting off a balloon. And then someone had to
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: call from Ireland.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: That was science, you know. But prior to that, it
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: was relying on analogs like the Farmer's All Mac, you know. Well,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: it didn't snow in... 1888, it won't today.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Analogues being kind of historical charts.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Records and records of records. And that's not good enough
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: when you've got 300,000 troops standing by in relative secrecy.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: In the fate of the free world. In the balance.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: And to delay that or even turn it around is
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: really quite near impossible. And when the Joint Chiefs of
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Staff received the report, it... was conflicting because they couldn't
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: just say, oh, we'll do it next week very easily.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Although they would have had to wait a considerable amount
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: of time because the phases of the moon would go through,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: the tides.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in the movie, General Montgomery says that the paratroopers
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: can only land when there's a full moon. And the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: next full moon would be the next week. And then
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: everyone's like, well, now the Nazis are going to find
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: out we're invading because no one can shut the up
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: for two weeks.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: But for the courage of the weatherman who came forward
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: and said, if you're going to go, there is going
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: to be a break in the storm the following day,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: which is Tuesday, June 6th, which we all know is D-Day.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: And if they were to attack, there was a window
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: of opportunity. It would have been that morning. It wasn't ideal,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: but the chop was less than the ocean. Air Force
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: could hit targets through the cloud cover.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And... Did it work?
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Well... You'll have to go see the film. The fate
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: of humanity. I hope it works, yeah.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: And the other theme of the movie is this idea,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: as you were kind of alluding to it, was this
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: idea of back in the good old days when leaders
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: met with scientists to make informed decisions that benefited most
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: of the audience.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Gave them that forum, had the courage to believe in them.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Listen to them. Didn't just hear them. And that's who
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: the kind of leader that I'm, my big takeaway in
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: my research was who Ike was. He was a diplomat.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: And apparently, at all accounts, he was a lot of
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: fun at dinner parties where he probably did some of
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: his best diplomatic work. I don't know, like magic tricks
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: with napkins or something. I don't know. But he was
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: a personable guy and he cared intensely for the troops.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: And that kind of respect is earned. It's not commanded.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: And in my view, I think that that in itself
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: becomes almost like a secret asset, weapon of sorts. That
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: we show respect for one another. And it goes a
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: long way to understanding why they're even doing that.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: In the first place. Yeah. Again, it's a great takeaway
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: from this movie. The lessons you can learn, weirdly enough,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: from history of how to defeat nazis the.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Scourge of tyranny and fascism yeah right read a.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Book yeah you you know you're playing eisenhower in this
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: like how much of this just if i could talk
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: technique a little bit acting technique like how much of
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: this were you were you trying to like you know
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: when you're playing a historical figure obviously there's so much
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: footage and materials available and Were you trying to, you know,
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: how much of that were you trying to do?
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: It was a first for me. I know I'm not
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: a carbon copy to look like Eisenhower. I got about.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: You guys are both white guys.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: We're.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: It's in the ballpark.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. But I know that with an audience's generational perspective,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: I think we can go back and look at, you know,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: who the essence of it is. And remember, this is
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: a film. We all kind of know the conclusion, but
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: The compelling part is how we're on the edge of
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: our seat watching this film, and we still wonder if
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: we humans are arrogant enough to shake our fist at
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: the sky and expect a different result. And you're going
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: to get it wrong if you do that. So it's
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: a film that I know will mean a great deal
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: to our veterans, and it will certainly mean a a
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: great deal towards understanding what went into the operation in
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: the first place. It was news to me that only
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: six weeks earlier, Eisenhower had given the order to use
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: live fire on a training exercise called Operation Tiger, and
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: that was in late April, the 28th and 29th, wherein
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: American troops were rehearsing, charging a beach in, the southern
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: beach in England. And there was confusion at sea with frequencies.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: German e-boats were harassing landing craft. And in the exercise,
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: an hour was lost. And the first wave in the
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: exercise attacked the beach. Unbeknownst to them, they walked right
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: into Eisenhower's And sadly, 749 Army and Navy lost their
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: lives that day. And it wasn't until the late 70s,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: a man called Burns, who lived on that beach, was
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: wondering why did the fishing nets keep getting stuck at
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: the same part in the surf? So somebody went down
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: with a mask and came up and said, tank. Oil, water? No, Sherman, tank.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: they had forgotten that that was the beach that was
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: used for the exercise. So sad as that is, to
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: answer your question, I took that as a springboard to
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: understanding who Eisenhower was and that he could not have
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: had seen his own son's eyes when he wished them
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: well and greeted them. You only look at the file
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: photos of the 101st and you can tell that there's
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: such consistency there. And it wasn't just because he was
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: talking about fly fishing and your mom and how bad
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: the food is. It was that he was even told
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: by them that, sir, don't worry, we'll take care of this.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: And I think it gave him some sort of sense
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: of consolation knowing that he was sending these guys into...
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: bare knuckle fight with a chainsaw to begin with, but
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: he's going to do it now in the eye of
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: a storm. And this is all news to me. I
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: got to ask, anybody know any of this historical perspective?
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Nor I. So I read a book. Come see the film.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: You'll see yourself. These guys are... You're asking the wrong crowd.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: These are TikTokers over there. They don't... Yeah, so, I mean, again.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Great movie.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Great portrayal.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: And again, I didn't know about this, and I think
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I'm a little.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Too- It gives you a new perspective and appreciation. It
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: totally does. Doesn't it? I felt the same way. And hey,
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: I'm glad that I worked with Andrew Scott. He's like
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: a boulder in the stream. He plays the weatherman who
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: brings this.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Well, the cast is all-star cast, I would say. You
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: got who's who. You got Damian Lewis, Montgomery- You got Kay,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Cary Condon. Cary Condon playing Kay.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: And Andrew Scott.
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Andrew Scott. And you'll likely recognize a lot of faces
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: from really great British television that populated the rest of
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: the cast. And the Keen Observers will see that the
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: location we used was actually also used in the second
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Mummy movie.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: And I learned that because walking on, I went, I
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: think I jumped out of that window. It's weird.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: The universe is so weird.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Weird. Well, it was a body double of me, but,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: you know, it looked.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Right, it looked like that. And this brings me back
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: to you, I guess. I mean, you are one of
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: the few beloved people in Hollywood. Seriously, everybody hates everybody.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: There's only, like... Yeah, look, there's only, like, four people. It's, like, you,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Keanu Reeves, Randall Park, and me. You know, everyone else
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: just hates everyone else. So how did, I mean, maybe
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: it's too general a question, but how did you manage that?
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Bribery.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Well, how much? Let us know so we can, you know.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: For me?
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're genuinely one of the most beloved people. And
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: you know, you've had this really wide-ranging career, man. You've
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: done it all. You've done, you did Encino Man, comedies,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: you did School Ties, you did... You did Crash. You
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: did Oscar. You got Whale. You did the Whale. You
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: won Oscar for the Whale. You did the Rental Cam. Like,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: it's been everything. I've been really lucky. Is there a
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: method to this?
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: I just want a job, man. Keep working. Keep working.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Repeat if I can. And it's not always like that.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: There are ups and downs. And it is a corkscrew.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess, more specifically, it's that your career, you've
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: done a lot of different genres and tones, is what
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: I'm asking.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Is that.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, is that.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: I've seen a lot of changes, a lot of trends
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: in the way films are made in my time and,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: you know, last century in the early 1990s.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: You mean the last millennium, yeah, when you were.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: When I was a whippersnapper.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: The films that were made were, for one thing, they
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: were shot on film. What's that? It's this stuff that
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: you got to get it wet.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: The long shit that you have to cut.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: If you turn the light on.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Charlie Chaplin.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Good times.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: But how did you pick these projects? Sorry, you're actually
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: explaining your perspective on the industry. I was just going to.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Say that I think early on I had a sort
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: of personal creed, one for them, Two for them, one
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: for me, you know? And sequel culture was, I think,
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: really sort of coming into its own in maybe around
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: the 1980s. I don't remember really getting excited as a
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: phone goer for a sequel since, like, Empire Strikes Back,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: you know?
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: And.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: This is.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: An easy crowd. Easy, totally.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: But then films, you know, if it worked once, why
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: not make it again? And then when I... first came
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: to town, I can remember there was a three Musketeers
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: movie getting made, but there were nine Musketeers running around
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Hollywood trying to get a Musketeer movie made. So it
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: was sort of like monkey see, monkey do. If it
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: worked once, then keep doing, do it, do it. Now,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: I don't know if there's so much mimicry in how
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: we approach which is going to be done. There's more
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: of a... penchant to look for the next event film
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: to get people to come to the theaters again. COVID
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: changed everything for us. And you sink or swim if
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: you decide, oh, I'm just going to wait and hope
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: that your audience doesn't stay at home and, you know,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: look at their phone. And... On the toilet taking a shit.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: That too. Looking out the window, see if it's going
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: to rain. Right.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: But, I mean, to ask you specifically, I guess we
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: have this... There's this kind of vibe right now. Everyone
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: likes to kind of shit on movies these days, you know,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: and you're one of the few guys who has a
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: perspective on this, so... how much truth is there to
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: this idea that, you know, we used to make things
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: better back then, or was it always a problem?
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: Oh, we can make crappy movies back then, too. Don't worry.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: You're guilty.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: What do you mean? That's not true at all. Everything
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: you made was great. But your perspective, as in your perspective,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: so is this kind of, you know, rose-tinted glasses, we
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: kind of look back and... 50-50.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: I think that there's a whole generation now who really
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: feel not but, you know, yeah, TikTok generation, but everyone
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: has an image rendering device in their pocket, and what
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: it can do is pretty remarkable, and you can, you know,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: you can shake your fist at it, like you can
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: try to shake your fist at the sky, but... That's
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: what I do. You're not always going to get your way,
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: so I think it's just a matter of accepting, you know,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: what the technology is, where it is now, and, hey,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: if it.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: If it worked once or twice, try it again. Like,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: maybe I'll make another mommy movie.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, my last question is, you've been making some really
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: cool indie movies lately. You did The Whale, you did
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Rental Family. I just wanted to ask.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: It was great.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: You worked with Fokaru. We had her on the show.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: She spoke very highly of you. I watched the movie.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Your Japanese is... I don't know. Can you speak Japanese?
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: You look like you can.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Speak Japanese in that movie.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I guess my question is.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: I just told them you owe me 50 bucks. Well, um, sure.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: I just want to know, how did you go about
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: picking these indie movies? Because it's not a... You're talking
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: about the struggles the industries are having right now, the
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: industry's having right now, and you managed to pick these
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: really cool kind of, I would say, diamonds in the rough.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: I look for what the content is in the story.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Has it really been done before as some kind of
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: sequel or not? Is it an idea that scares me
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: a little bit? I think it's good to take creative,
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: calculated risks. That's where the most growth can come from,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: you know, um, creatively speaking. Uh, and I also honestly
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: look to see what, what do people really want to see?
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: You know, we, we want to be taken somewhere. We
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: want to be shown something new. We, we want to
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: feel like, like we've learned something. So, I mean, like
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: I feel like pressure. I did not know that there
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: was an operation that went horribly wrong that influenced the
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: mind of one of our great leaders. And, Certainly I
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: had no idea that the weather almost caused this catastrophic
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: delay that would have put us in, I don't know
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: what kind of science fiction world we would be living
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: in now if they had attacked on that day.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: You'd be in a fascist dictator state. Thank God that
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: didn't happen. But great job.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Anyway, Brendan Fraser. Hey, you're the best, man. I love
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: everything you do. Everybody loves you. You're the best, and
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: you're amazing. Thanks for coming on the show.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Pressure is in theaters on.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: May 29th with special sneak previews. Nationwide, it will be
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Memorial Day weekend.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: Brandon Fraser.