Are The Mummy's Brendan Fraser & Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson Friends In Real Life?

Brendan Fraser will forever be associated with Dwayne Johnson's career. The actors both starred in "The Mummy Returns," otherwise known as the movie that gave "The Rock" his first big break as an A-list film star. Despite being former co-stars, however, the performers don't appear to be close friends in real life. That said, they do have a history of praising each other's successes, suggesting that their relationship is positively cordial.

Fraser's recent Oscar-worthy comeback story has been well documented, and Johnson was quick to praise his old co-star after seeing a viral clip of a standing ovation for his performance in "The Whale" last year. "Man this makes me so happy to see this beautiful ovation for Brendan," Johnson wrote on Twitter. "He supported me coming into his Mummy Returns franchise for my first-ever role, which kicked off my Hollywood career. Rooting for all your success brother and congrats to my bud Darren Aronofsky. #TheWhale."

Johnson's words of praise weren't lost on Fraser either, who had some nice things to say about his "Mummy Returns" colleague in return.

Brendan Fraser appears to have enjoyed meeting Dwayne Johnson for the first time back in the day. In an interview with Variety, he thanked the former WWE Superstar for the aforementioned supportive tweet and then told a story about the first time they hung out.

According to Fraser, he didn't officially meet Johnson until after their film collaboration had wrapped. Johnson's character in "The Mummy Returns," the Scorpion King, is a CGI creation when he encounters the film's heroes, so the actor wasn't needed for every scene. "The first time I met him was at the reception after the Mummy Returns. We hadn't met in person before then, actually, although we were fighting onscreen," Fraser said. "But every time I 'worked with him,' he was just a piece of tape on a stick. So it was nice to go, 'Hey, man. How are ya? We finally meet!'"

Fraser went on to joke about being able to take the version of Johnson he worked with in a fight, but he didn't say anything about wanting to brawl with the human iteration of the actor. "I could take him. I could take him — he's just a piece of tape on a stick!"