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The Mummy’s Brendan Fraser says Rachel Weisz knew her character even better than the casting directors did
How The Mummy’s Rachel Weisz blew Brendan Fraser away during her audition
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There is no Mummy without Rachel Weisz. Sure, there have been Mummy films without her, but look at how they’ve performed. Weisz’s performance as Evelyn Carnahan was one of the highlights of The Mummy film series, and that’s one of the reasons she’ll be returning for a new entry in 2028.
When asked why Weisz’s return was so important, her co-star Brendan Fraser had a simple answer. “Have you seen her? Apart from the whole easy on the eyes thing, are you impressed by talent, skill, charm, intelligence, tough as nails, funny, cheeky, and an actress who stands up for what that character needs and wants,” Brendan Fraser says during a Mummy spotlight panel at MegaCon 2026.
Fraser shared a story about his chemistry test with Weisz for the first Mummy film, and how she understood her character better than the casting director.
“I was hired already. I came into Universal Studios for a meeting and the casting director wanted to have a chemistry read,” Fraser explained. "We put two actors together, point a camera at them and say, ‘Well, what do they look like.’ So we did this, and we’re reading the sides to each other, and the casting director is doing the casting director thing.”
He went on, “We were reading a scene about getting treasure deciphered. It was a scene that didn’t make it into the movie. And the casting director gave Rachel a note and said, ‘Can you make more out of what she really wants to have about getting the treasure.’ And Rachel looked right back at her and said, ‘No, actually, she really doesn’t want the treasure at all. She just wants to feel empowered. She just wants this guy to take her seriously.’ And she was right too. That was the thrust of her whole character. She’s going to do right by herself. She’s going to upset the boundaries.”
The untitled Mummy sequel is expected to hit theaters on May 19, 2028.
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