BRENDAN Fraser talks about the incredible year he’s enjoyed, following back-to-back hits with Journey To The Centre of the Earth 3D, The Mummy 3 and now Inkheart.

He also talks about how humble he felt upon hearing that he was Inkheart author Cornelia Funke’s personal choice for the role and why he feels the whole family will enjoy the movie.

Q. Congratulations on a brilliant year – what with the success of Journey To The Centre of the Earth 3D, The Mummy 3 and now Inkheart. Have your feet touched the ground?
Brendan Fraser: They’re still there, so far as I can see [laughs]. And I have boots on too!

Q. Can you believe how successful the year has been for you?
Brendan Fraser: Careers go in cycles. I’ve plateau-ed. I’ve been at the bottom of the ocean… but in my case, it’s the centre of the Earth [laughs]. What can I tell you? You win some, you lose some… It’s nice to know that if you’ve worked really hard at something, it gets recognised with a tick in the success column – however you define that, be it making a bunch of dough, which the actors never see much of (!), or whether it’s a piece that’s enlightening or stays with the audience maybe six, seven or even eight or 10 years later.

If someone comes up to you and goes: “I saw you in this movie called Gods & Monsters, or The Quiet American, and that was a good movie.” That’s nice. I was once approached by this rabbi who said: “I just want you to know that I run a camp for Israeli and Palestinian kids to get to know each other in those crucial years between nine and 13, when neurologically they’re forming opinions about stuff, and as an ice-breaker I show the film School Ties to get them to take a look at what it means to feel like to want to belong.”

In the case of that movie it was about a kid who hid the fact he was Jewish, so that he could belong in an environment full of Christians. So, I call that a success, even though it probably only made about a buck 50. But who cares? That’s the thing. But I do feel good. Not that I’m blowing my own horn, but something really cool happened this year that’s taken several years to get in place… and that is we have technology now that’s going to change the face of cinema.

Q. Is that 3D?
Brendan Fraser: Yes. Irrevocably. It’s arguably on a par, once the kinks get ironed out, as when the moving image was first married with an audio track and we had the talkies, or when we went from black and white to colour. If you think about it, it’s a step forward in bringing an audience into the experience of participating in a movie that makes it feel as though it’s even more real. The dimensionality of 3D, the depth of field, the dynamism… it’s an immersive experience. And on top of that it’s great because the new glasses don’t make you want to throw up and they don’t give you paper cuts! They’re polarised lenses made to be warn in the dark.

My film, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, was always meant to be shot in 3D, it was pre-vizzed in 3D and it’s still playing in those theatres that have had digital conversions to those systems. I was a pitch-man for projection systems all last summer… I went all over America and parts of Europe because it’s just going to change the way we see cinema.

Personally, I think it brings people together to the theatre again and if it’s a good experience, then that’s a good thing. And economically speaking, the experience of it can’t be pirated. I don’t want to give people any ideas out there by saying that, and I’m sure they will eventually steal it, but for now it’s something that is just not to be ignored. Not everything should be in 3D, and won’t be… some films will be retro-actively converted to 3D. George Lucas has done it [with Star Wars] and I saw it; it’s really good. It was a 10-minute test of Star Wars, which was astonishing for me because I remember seeing it in Leicester Square for the first time. But I was just blown away as an adult because I remember seeing Darth Vader, this formidable icon of fear… and in 3D there’s so much information on the screen. You can see everything.

Q. Would you like to see Inkheart in 3D?
Brendan Fraser: It would be interesting to do. I mean it’s the sort of material that would support being in 3D. Inkheart itself is done, of course. But if we’re lucky enough, and people buy tickets to see it and say “yes, we want another one”, because it’s a trilogy as novels go, then yes. The real story in these books actually picks up where the first one left off, when all the characters are into the world of Inkheart, which is this rather dangerous, medieval, fantastical one. That could be really interesting and if we do shoot that film, and if it were done in 3D, I think it would work because you’d have so much more to captivate the imagination as opposed to maybe what you’ve seen in 3D in years past. As long as it’s used judiciously, so it’s not irritating with people sticking fingers in your eyes all the time… people could chuck a spear at you once or twice, so you have to duck. That would be exciting.

Q. You were personally recommended by Inkheart author, Cornelia Funke, for the lead role in the film, so how flattering was that?
Brendan Fraser: Is there another word for flattering? She sent me a copy of her novel and said: “Thank you very much for inspiring this character. I hope you can read it to your kids one day.” I thought someone was winding me up. And when I checked that it was for real, I was told that she really wrote the book and gave loads of interviews to publications in the UK and Germany saying that. I didn’t know how to respond. So, I read the book and thought it was very good and I thought it would make a great movie. So yes is the answer. Was I flattered? I was humbled, astonished… because at the time, as careers were going, mine was kind of in a plateau at the time.

I’d picked up my camera and was taking a lot of pictures most days, trying to teach myself photography because I think that everybody should have something that they’re spectacularly bad at – but do it joyfully. I’ve taken some good shots and had people look at my prints and say: “That one’s good.” So, I sent her a box of prints that I had and we began a friendship. I skipped off a press tour kind of early for a movie that I won’t name [coughs Looney Tunes] and went and met her and her family, as well as her late husband and their Icelandic pony and their dog.

And I was introduced to a wonderful family that worked as a real team and was delighted to see how she’s an individual who has this remarkable imagination, and yet at the same time she must have a doppelganger because who is doing the writing? She’s busy touring the world, talking about her books to kids, so who is physically sitting down and writing the books? You’d ask her how Inkspell is coming along, the second in the books, and she’d say: “It’s very interesting…” She’s speaking about it as if it’s something growing like a garden. I’m not a writer or an author, but she knows the characters and they reveal themselves to her and whisper the tale to her.

Q. Are you happy with the finished film? Because I guess you must feel more protective of it, given how personal it clearly has become for you?
Brendan Fraser: Definitely. The film was done lovingly and in record time, even if there were some delays due to studio politics and release dates. As a father that’s just turned 40, I recommend that if you have a kid and you have a grandpa or a grandma, give it a go. It doesn’t condescend to its audience and it’s good value for an outing to the cinema, which can be quite expensive nowadays.

Read our review of Inkheart

Read our interview with Paul Bettany

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