Photo Source: AP Photo/Charles Sykes
First, he wanted to go to Oslo, Norway. There, he hoped to eat pork and gravy, walk by a lake, visit a mental institution, talk to social workers, grab a beer with some car mechanics, hang out at a poetry reading, munch on a hot dog, dial up a phone sex line and buy some comic books and porno.
"Oh yeah," he says. "I also wanted to learn how to swear in Norwegian."
All that was to get into character before hitting the stage in the New York premiere of "Elling," a sort of "Odd Couple" set in modern-day Norway with two recently released mental patients.
That was the plan at least, but Fraser ran out of time at the end of the summer and never got a chance to get to Norway. He relied on notes from his co-star Denis O'Hare, YouTube videos, maps of Oslo and, oh yeah, the script.
"Everything you need to know as far as preparation, whether you're doing Shakespeare or a contemporary piece, should all be right here," he says, pointing to Simon Bent's script. "And if it's not, then there's a clue about where to find it if you're paying attention."
Fraser may be better known for his comedic turns in "Dudley Do-Right" and "Bedazzled," or his action movies such as the cadaver-bashing "The Mummy" franchise, or his more serious film roles like "Gods and Monsters" and "Crash," but he has also ventured onto the stage.
He played Brick in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" in London in 2001 and starred in John Patrick Shanley's "Four Dogs and a Bone" in 1995 at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. He looks tired but jazzed as he puts the finishing touches on "Elling."
"In the end, it pretty much becomes about just brute memorization and burning calories. You put all the glittery bits aside," he says while munching on almonds in his dressing room at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
O'Hare, a Tony Award-winner, says he's been impressed by how Fraser has thrown himself into the role. "This is an actor with immense bravery," O'Hare says. "He has gone flat-out and has never winced once when our director, Doug Hughes, makes a criticism."
The comedy, based on the novels by Ingvar Ambjornsen, was made into a cult, Oscar-nominated foreign-language film and adapted in Norwegian for the stage by Axel Hellstenius and Petter Naess. This English-language version comes to Broadway after a well-received run in London.
Fraser, 41, remembers liking the film when it made the rounds as an Academy Award screener in 2001 and he kept his copy because he loved it. "For one reason or another, I've been drawn to stories about misfit individuals and unusual friendships," he says.
"Elling" is just that, telling the feel-good story of a wimpy, mother-fixated would-be poet played by O'Hare who strikes a friendship in an asylum with Fraser's bearish former mechanic who loves hot dogs and women — though he has yet to actually date one. The two must fend for themselves when state officials release them from an asylum with the warning that they'll go back if they don't show they can live independent lives.
Choosing to do the play offered Fraser a chance to fulfill a lifetime dream of being on Broadway and gave him an opportunity to be closer to his three young sons, who live with his ex-wife in Connecticut.
"You have to look at your calendar, your life. Am I going to do another 'Mummy' movie? Hey, guess what? I have bills to pay, too. But you just have to carve out the six to eight months that it takes to commit to it."
There's another, more personal reason he's happy to be on Broadway. In 1976, he and his family were relocating from their Ottawa home to Europe and stopped in New York. A 6-year-old Fraser was separated from his three brothers and found himself happily wandering around Broadway, watching the crowds spill out at the matinees. When it was time to go, a kindly taxi driver drove him to his hotel and chatted about musicals and theaters. He refused to take Fraser's money.
"He said something to the effect of, 'I'll see you on the Great White Way, kiddo!' I thought, 'Wow. New York is the coolest place,'" recalls the actor. "I guess a seed of some sort was planted."
Fraser has lately been on a crash course of Broadway history, geeked out on learning that his dressing room is the same one that Jessica Tandy used while performing in Elia Kazan's production of "A Streetcar Named Desire." He's also learned that Katharine Hepburn asked for curtains to be installed in the back of the house to block sunlight. As for him, he's just happy to be there.
"I'll be here until March, until I get fired or something," he says. "If it goes on any further and if I get a call that I have got to go and clobber some more mummies or something like that, I'll think about it. But for right now, I'm happy as a clam."
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
