Time Network Feature Article This male star with thinning hair and fat neck is not neckless, can you recognize who he is?
What if I had two more photos?
Yes, he was once a hit in Hollywood, starring in the "Forest Tarzan" and "The Mummy" series of actor Brandon Fisher.
Recently, he returned to the audience's attention with the new film "Whale" starring in the film, which has a good reputation, with an IMDb rating of 9.2 and a freshness rating of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes. The new film, produced by A24 and directed by Darren Aronofsky, director of Black Swan and The Wrestling King, received a six-minute round of applause from the audience after its premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival.
Brandon Fisher also won the Toronto Film Festival Performance Tribute Award for this film, and became one of the strong contenders for next year's Oscar. From the popular "small fresh meat" to today's bloated uncle, what has he experienced? This time, can Brandon Fisher start a second spring in his career?
Hollywood small fresh meat
Speaking of Brandon Fisher, it may be a little strange to younger fans, in fact, he is a "childhood memory" for many people. Born in Indianapolis, USA in 1968, Brandon moved to Hollywood after graduating from college and starring in his first film "The Verdict of Innocence" in 1991.
In 1992, Brandon co-starred with Sean Austin and Paul Shore in the comedy film The Sleeping Savage, in which he played a small role as a sailor, showing an outstanding comedic talent.
The Sleeping Savage
He is 190 centimeters tall, but he does not dance at all, but looks very flexible.
In the same year, Brandon starred in the sports-themed movie "Campus Storm", when many Hollywood students who had just debuted were rushing to act in this movie.
The cast of the film is luxurious, and Matt Damon, Chris O'Donald, and Ben Affleck, who played supporting roles for him, are all big names today.
But the movie that makes Brandon really familiar to the public is the 1997 Disney live-action version of "Forest Tarzan".
The film is based on the American television cartoon series of the same name in the 1960s and 1970s.
During this period, he can indeed be described as "outstanding", with deep and charming blue eyes, flowing and wild long hair, coupled with the figure of eight-pack abs, which fascinated many female audiences.
In a 2018 interview with the magazine, Brandon said, "I looked at my body and felt like a walking steak. ”
The film grossed $170 million worldwide that year, and he quickly entered the ranks of Hollywood's most popular students with this film.
After the explosion of Brandon, good resources are one after another.
In 1998, he starred in "The Gods and the Beast", and he played on the same stage with Ian McLean. From 1999 to 2008, Brandon ushered in the pinnacle of his career, the Mummy trilogy.
The first "The Mummy" was a huge success, and the film's action design and special effects were of the highest level in that era.
In the film, Brandon plays the explorer O'Connor, with a long diagonal bangs, without taking off a single piece of clothing the whole time, and can also spill male hormones on the silver screen.
In this play, the screen CP composed of Brandon and Rachel Vichy is a clichéd plot of heroes saving beauty, but the character portrayal is concise and powerful, and it is still very "good".
The first "The Mummy" set a global box office myth of $410 million, and also made Brandon one of the most popular male stars in Hollywood at that time. By the time he starred in the sequel "The Mummy Returns" in 2001, his salary had risen from $4 million to $12 million, a staggering number 20 years ago.
In addition to acting in Hollywood commercial blockbusters, Brandon is also exploring new ways to act, and in 2004 he starred in the movie "Crash".
The film won the more famous "Brokeback Mountain" and won the 78th Academy Awards for Best Picture.
Injuries, sexual assault and life troughs
Before the age of 30, Brandon had been having a smooth ride, but the turning point was hidden at the peak of his career. In 2008, Brandon released three films in a row - "The Mummy 3", "Adventures in the Center of the Earth" and "Ink Heart".
This year, he did not usher in the explosion of his career, but encountered an unprecedented trough.
The Mummy 3
"The Mummy 3" set the story in China, and Brandon continued to play the role of O'Connor, starring Chinese actors such as Jet Li, Yang Ziqiong, Liang Luoshi, and Wu Jing.
Although the film still has a global box office of $400 million, the Western perspective of the whole film is mixed with Chinese elements, the effect is quite embarrassing, and the reputation of the film has become unbearable.
"The Mummy 3" starred in a group photo, when Liang Luoshi was only 20 years old
This led Universal Pictures to abandon the Mummy film series outright, restarting The New Mummy starring Tom Cruise in 2017.
However, "The New Mummy" also hit the street, and Universal lost a huge loss of $95 million, directly aborting the "Dark Monster Universe" plan.
Adventures in the Center of the Earth
"Adventures in the Heart of the Earth" was the trendsetting 3D movie of the year, the first response was good, the global box office of 244 million US dollars, it is reasonable to say that the sequel film should continue to shoot him. However, due to the director of the first part, Eric Brevig, who was replaced by the film during the sequel, Brandon, who is a good friend of the director, also broke up with the filmmaker. The sequel "Adventures in the Heart of the Earth 2: Mysterious Island" starred in Dwayne Johnson, and Johnson's first film was Brandon's "The Mummy: Homecoming" in which Brandon was the protagonist.
Beginning in 2008, Brandon was in very poor physical condition, and years of intense action scenes plagued his body with injuries.
When filming The Mummy 3, he insisted on trying not to use a stand-in, and even needed tape to tie ice cubes to cold compress his body. He spent seven years in and out of the hospital, undergoing surgeries that included knee replacement surgery, laminectomy, and vocal cord repair.
A hurricane hit the U.S. East Coast in 2012 when Brandon was hit in the back by a tree in his home.
For a long time afterwards, he had to walk on crutches, which also meant that it was difficult for him to do intense body movements anymore. For action actors, this is undoubtedly a fatal loss.
Even more shocking is that in a 2018 interview, Brandon said a psychological shadow that has plagued him for many years. It turned out that in the summer of 2003, he had been sexually harassed by Philip Burke, the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is also the organizer of the Golden Globe Awards.
Philip Burke
According to Brandon, Burke touched his hip at a press conference's luncheon and put his hand in his pants.
"I was scared and wronged, I felt like a little child, like a ball in my throat, I thought I was going to cry." 」
At that time, Brandon did not choose to call the police, but left the banquet in a gruff voice, which made him unable to let go for a long time. Although years later, Brandon plucked up the courage to complain to the Golden Globes Association, and the result was that Burke lightly issued an apology, but avoided his actions. After 2003, Brandon did not receive an invitation to the Golden Globe for many years. Ironically, it wasn't until 2021 that Burke was removed from the association for discriminating against black people, but not for sexual harassment.
His personal life was also bumpy.
In 2007, his wife, Afton Smith, filed for divorce from him, for which Brandon paid up to $900,000 a year in alimony.
In 2013, Brandon experienced another round of divorce property wars, and even went to court. He asked the judge to reduce the high alimony, but his ex-wife demanded that he hide his property and resolutely refused to budge.
With the passage of time, this "little fresh meat" of the year began to be abandoned by Hollywood.
His out-of-control appearance and stature, as well as his unbalanced physical and psychological state, have plunged him into a career trough that is difficult to climb out.
Career rejuvenation
2010 was a tough year for Brandon, with two consecutive films hitting box office failures.
He and Harrison Ford starred in "The Good Cure," which cost 31 million and only returned 12 million at the box office.
"Good Medicine"
The other film, "Back to the Wilderness," which he starred in, cost $35 million and only recovered 17.5 million at the box office, and both films were shortlisted for the Forbes list of the top ten money-losing bad films that year.
Back to the Wilderness
In fact, there are many box office tragedies in the movies starring Brandon before: 1999's "Iron Rider Horror", with an investment of more than 70 million yuan but less than 10 million at the box office.
But because the aura of "The Mummy" was too dazzling in the past, people were particularly tolerant of him, and with the end of "The Mummy 3" in 2008, Brandon Fisher began to be sent by film critics again and again to the "box office poison" bad reviews.
After 2012, his figure began to be visibly blessed. In the following years, although he occasionally starred in film and television dramas, he could no longer receive commercial blockbusters and could only play small roles.
In 2016, Brandon took over the third season of "Extramarital Affairs", appearing as a fat and bulging prison guard, without his previous appearance and body, but his acting skills won him applause.
The third season of "Extramarital Affair"
In 2019, he starred in the DC blockbuster American drama "Doomsday Patrol", playing mecha man Cliff Stiller.
Doomsday Patrol
In the American drama "Trust", he played the wise and humorous detective Chace vividly and flexibly.
"Trust"
Referring to Brandon's recent new film, he starred in "Flower Moon Killer" directed by Martin Scorsese, which starred in familiar old faces such as Little Plum and Robert De Niro.
His "Batgirl" starring him last year was originally a blockbuster with an investment of 90 million yuan, but it was cut by DC before it was released, and it was also a bit unlucky as a star.
Batgirl
In the latest film "The Whale", Brandon plays his father, Charlie, who weighs 600 pounds. The father is stubborn and determined to eat himself to death as he approaches the end of his life, and only his daughter Ellie, who is estranged from Charlie, is the last hope to save him.
Brandon in the film is already too fat to be recognized, and he also needs to perform with a latex model weighing dozens of pounds. At the premiere of "The Whale," Brandon Fisher hugged and wept with director Darren Aronofsky, who bowed deeply to the audience.
The beauty and strong figure that once belonged to him, although he will never come back, he is still studying hard to be a good enough actor.
At this year's Toronto Film Festival, Brandon happened to meet Yang Ziqiong, who had worked on "The Mummy 3".
Now that the two men's new films "Whale" and "Instantaneous All Universe" are released by A24 companies, I don't know if they will win more awards in next year's awards season?
Author: Hidden Drink
Editor: Zhen Zi