Remember, Brendan Fraser’s Renaissance Started With Doom Patrol

People are ready for Brendan Fraser to make his comeback. By all accounts, this will happen with The whale, the upcoming film from Darren Aronofsky starring Fraser as a 600 lb. An English teacher trying to reconnect with his daughter, which, according to the buzz, has already put him in the running for a Best Actor nomination. But what all those people waiting for a “Fraserenaissance” to begin don’t realize that he’s already done it, and it started with Doom Patrol.

Those who know Fraser as the leading man of The Mummy The franchise surely thinks he seemed to fade from the public eye for most of 2000 and 2010, though a look at his IMDb page reveals he worked sporadically in smaller roles. The actor said in 2018 that former Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Phillip Berk sexually assaulted him in 2003, and that speaking privately about the affair resulted in his career suffering and Fraser suffering from depression . But like in 1998 gods and monsters revealed early in his career, despite his early silly comedies, Brendan Fraser is a really good actor, and people are excited to see him back. Except he already did.

Fraser had a series of small recurring roles on various television series before being cast as Cliff Steele, aka DC Comics member of Doom Patrol and semi-hero Robotman, in an episode of Titans. But that led to him playing (although mostly just voicing; he appears as the pre-Robotman version of Cliff in flashbacks or meta-moments like pictured above) the character in a full version. Doom Patrol TV series premiered in 2019. The show generated little buzz at the time, as it was initially only available on the DC Universe streaming service, but critics gave universal praise for the role of Fraser as the flawed and tortured Steele.

Inspired by the strange, brilliant of Grant Morrison Doom Patrol comics from the late 80s/early 90s, the series featured Steele as a famous, decadent, and selfish NASCAR driver who killed his wife while driving drunk and nearly committed suicide. Instead, his brain was placed in the body of a crude and simple robot, returning to consciousness only 20 years later. His anguish of being stuck in an unresponsive robot body is enormous, but still far outweighed by the guilt he feels for killing his wife and being a horrible husband and father, not least because he was raised by the same. And while Cliff tries to fix his dysfunction (as all members of the Doom Patrol do), it’s not a cycle that can be broken in an episode, let alone a season. He can still be an asshole, he can still be obsessed with himself, and he can still ruin new relationships he’s formed.

If that doesn’t sound appealing, then you haven’t watched. Doom Patrol. Brendan Fraser conveys all of Cliff’s angst and dick with such complexity and emotion that he’s still the (metallic) heart of the show, only through Fraser’s voice. (No offense to Robotman’s physical actor Riley Shanahan, but he’s supposed to move like a jerky robot without being able to convey anything but the broadest gestures.) It’s a fantastic performance that keeps the character tragic. , relatable and still somehow lovable despite all his flaws. Suffice it to say, it ranks among Fraser’s finest works.

Did Darren Aronofsky watch Doom Patrol and decide to make the actor the star of his next film? It’s unlikely. But he probably saw the Hollywood trades where Fraser was announced to play villain Firefly in HBO Max eventually. sentenced bat girl film, a role the actor likely landed at least in part thanks to his incredible work on the HBO television series. After all, let’s not forget, as Hollywood did, that Fraser can be a very good actor when given the right material – and Doom Patrol, through its three seasons, has been the right material. So don’t worry about the start date of the Fraserrenaissance. It’s already here.

Want more io9 news? Find out when to wait for the last wonder and star wars versions, what’s next for the DC Universe in Film and TVand everything you need to know about Dragon House and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.