Brendan Fraser's 10 Greatest Performances
8. Encino Man
In retrospect, there may have been no better possible film role to introduce Brendan Fraser to the masses than Encino Man.
In the film, Fraser plays a caveman who is unthawed in present-day 1992 by Sean Astin and Pauly Shore, which is just about as 90s as one can get. The resulting film is a teen comedy of errors in which Fraser's caveman, Link, attends school as a 'foreign exchange student' and Sean Astin and Pauly Shore attempt to use his good looks and physique as a way to get popular.
The greatest thing about this performance from Fraser is that it immediately foreground one of his strongest attributes as an actor: his adeptness and perfect timing for physical comedy. As Link, Fraser's performance is almost entirely physical, with little dialogue at all aside from grunts and occasional words. But solely through his actions, he's able to both get huge laughs and express so much about the character and his simultaneous excitement and sadness over being in a new era away from everyone he knew.
It may very well be one of the best and most fitting introductory starring performances of any actor of the last few decades.