Brendan Fraser makes Broadway debut in 'Elling' as freed mental patient, compares theater acting to 'burning calories'

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Brendan Fraser recently made his Broadway debut in "Elling", playing a released mental patient and poet, and compares theater acting to "burning calories".

The production also stars Denis O'Hare, who plays his asylum friend, a female-obsessed virgin, and Jennifer Coolidge, aka "Stifler's mom" in the "American Pie" movies. In the play, the two men are released from the mental institution and must show they are able to live independently and as roommates in order to not be sent back.

"In the end, it pretty much becomes about just brute memorization and burning calories," the Associated Press quoted Frazer, 41, as saying while eating almonds at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre." You put all the glittery bits aside."

The actor, known for his leading role in the action-packed "Mummy" franchise as well as the comedy films "Bedazzled" and "Encino Man", said that he enjoyed the 2001 Norwegian film based on the Norwegian novels by Ingvar Ambjørnsen.

"I'll be here until March, until I get fired or something," Fraser said. "If it goes on any further and if I get a call that I have got to go and clobber some more mummies or something like that, I'll think about it. But for right now, I'm happy as a clam."

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