9. Brendan Fraser - Gods and Monsters (1998)
Apart from guilty pleasure
The Mummy, Brendan Fraser hasnt had a very lucky career.
Furry Vengeance,
Bedazzled and
Inkheart are no-ones idea of classic cinema, with Fraser mugging his way through all of them as little more than dumb eye candy. Which is a shame, because
Gods and Monsters offers so much more from Fraser, giving a hint at what he could have been had he not resigned himself to the shortest career path in Hollywood. In Bill Condon's biopic of
Frankenstein director James Whale, Fraser plays gardener Clay Boone opposite Ian McKellens renowned homosexual and Hollywood outcast Whale. Theres a surprising amount of depth to Mr. Fraser in
Gods and Monsters, his mix of confused rage and naive, wounded sensitivity clearly a tricky one to navigate. Its hard to imagine many actors being able to pull it off, but somehow its George of the jungle that manages it, holding his own against Ian McKellen in his finest screen performance.