Brendan Fraser Apologizes to San Francisco for ‘George of the Jungle’ Traffic Jam, 25 Years Later: ‘My Bad. It Won’t Happen Again’
Brendan Fraser’s awards season with “The Whale” continued over the weekend at the Mill Valley Film Festival, where he was on hand for a screening of the film and to accept the annual event’s lifetime achievement award. Speaking to SFGATE on the red carpet (via Entertainment Weekly), Fraser issued a humorous apology to the city of San Francisco due to a traffic jam the “George of the Jungle” production caused over 25 years ago. Mill Valley is about 14 miles north of San Francisco.
“When we were doing ‘George of the Jungle,’ George goes to rescue a parachutist tangled in the Golden Gate Bridge,” Fraser said, citing the Golden Gate Bridge instead of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge which was featured in the film. “That means Disney put a mannequin hanging by a parachute from the uprights. It brought traffic to a standstill on either side of the bridge.”
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Fraser continued, “My trailer was on the other side in a parking lot. I just remember watching the Golden Gate Bridge. There’s this dummy parachutist hanging from it. I had the TV on, and ‘Oprah’ got interrupted because there was a special news report with helicopters saying a parachute is dangling on the bridge. And I’m going — wait a minute, I’m looking at the helicopters and TV — somebody didn’t pull a permit, somebody’s going to get in trouble with the mayor’s office. So I can only apologize for that.”
Later that evening while accepting his lifetime achievement award, Fraser again referenced the incident and added, “So, that said, my bad. It won’t happen again.”
The 1997 comedy “George of Jungle” starred Fraser opposite Leslie Mann and Thomas Haden Church. The film, based on the “Tarzan”-spoofing animated series of the same name, was a box office hit, earning $174 million worldwide.
Fraser is currently an Oscar frontrunner for his performance in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” which has earned enthusiastic standing ovations at festivals in Venice, Toronto and London. The film opens in theaters on Dec. 9 from A24.
For more on Fraser, read Variety’s recent cover story with the actor.
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