Possibly the thing I’m proudest of in my decades-long history of Writing About Pop Culture is insisting that a certain actor deserved a career revival. Which he then got and won an Oscar and just seemed like The Nicest Guy. We’ve all been so happy for him, and he’s deserved it. But one of the purest parts of the narrative with him this past Oscar season was watching his interactions with Brendan Fraser. The pair knew each other slightly from Encino Man, which they were both in, and they spent a lot of time together on the awards circuit and seemed to be good friends.

By all accounts, it’s not difficult to be good friends with Brendan Fraser. He seems to be quite a sweet guy who’s been horribly mistreated by the Hollywood system. The pure chutzpah it took for the HFPA to nominate him for a Golden Globe after he was groped by the group’s once-president is a lot, especially since we’re talking “groped at best,” given the guy admitted that much in a memoir. He suffered physical damage from the push to do his own stunts, and he suffered depression from life events, and eventually, he stepped away.

It’s not that people who aren’t as nice as Fraser deserve bad things. It’s that it’s harder to watch these things happen to Brendan Fraser. For a while, he seemed to be the perfect Hollywood star. He proved himself adept at comedy, drama, and action. He wasn’t nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Gods and Monsters, but he easily could have been in a less packed year. He’s a delight in The Mummy. He’s got a small but funny role in Brain Candy that is also sadly prescient. Frankly he should have the career that Tom Cruise does.

And then he didn’t. He stepped away in depression and physical pain. His mother died; his wedding dissolved. He never fully stopped acting, both because he seems to love the work and because he was paying a truly staggering amount of alimony. But the roles he played seemed to tend toward the truly terrible—I actually remember expressing pity for him when he appeared in Furry Vengeance. There just weren’t the roles he deserved, the roles he was capable of. You almost wonder if he was getting more for Mummy residuals.

I haven’t seen The Whale, mostly because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t like it. And I haven’t had time to catch up on Doom Patrol. But add me to the list of people who would rather watch Batgirl than The Flash. I will probably get to Killers of the Flower Moon at some point, and I have no doubt he’s good in that. He’s always good, and I say that as someone who saw Journey to the Center of the Earth in the theatre. In 3D.

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