Before he became a movie star, Brendan Fraser had a minor role in the coming-of-age film Now and Then. Released in 1995, Now and Then put the coming-of-age genre on its ear by featuring an all-female cast. The movie assembled an all-star group of established stars and future icons to play its four main characters, portrayed at different ages in the past and present. In addition to being a vehicle for Melanie Griffith and Demi Moore, it was a jumping-off point for Thora Birch and Christina Ricci to begin taking on more young adult roles. Brendan Fraser also played an iconic role in the film, but his part was uncredited.
Fraser was a year away from leading roles in movies like Mrs. Winterbourne, and by the end of the 1990s, he was one of the biggest stars in the world thanks to tent pole films like The Mummy. Though Hollywood failed Brendan Fraser through the 2000s, it was his down-to-earth performance style that made him such an amazing actor. Now and Then became a cult classic due in large part to its amazing cast, and Brendan Fraser's humble contribution was so much more than a throw-away role.
Brendan Fraser Played The Vietnam War Veteran In Now And Then
Now and Then's 1970 sequences center on a young group of friends exploring their little town and coming to learn more about the people who live there. Characters like Old Pete grow over the course of the film, and the girls learn that there is more to people than what appears on the surface. In Now and Then, Brendan Fraser plays a young Vietnam War veteran who has grown increasingly isolated from society due to his experiences overseas. Samantha immediately takes a liking to him, but the rest of the girls are reticent to trust a stranger.
Brendan Fraser's best movies show off his affability while also containing multitudes just below the surface. In his Now and Then scene, the Vietnam vet talks to the girls, they confide their problems to him, and he listens intently despite having obvious problems of his own. Fraser's performance is all in his eyes, and he plays the young man with a chilling thousand-yard stare that indicates his past trauma. The takeaway from the scene is the advice he gives to the girls that parents are ultimately human, and they don't always know everything.
The Vietnam Veteran Was Similar To Fraser's Role In The Whale
The Brendan Fraser renaissance was complete in 2023 when he won an Academy Award for his performance in The Whale, and there he played a very similar character to his role in Now and Then. Both the Vietnam vet and The Whale's Charlie are kind and well-meaning people who have grown increasingly isolated due to the bad things that happened in their past, and yet both still have an open heart for others. Though The Whale is an unflinching character portrait, both movies touch on difficult topics. Whether he's in an understated coming-of-age film or an Oscar-caliber drama, Brendan Fraser shows that he can deliver a stunning performance in anything.