Brendan Fraser talks Inkheart

The Mummy man

Working with effects and CGI is old hat to Fraser after his Mummy series and his recent successes with Journey to the Center of the Earth. “If you have a director who has a very clear vision of it, what he wants and expects from the film itself, and assuming you have a cast that’s strong enough to recognize that,” Fraser says of CGI films that work.

For Inkheart, although laden with effects, its core finds Fraser believing it is an entirely different type of picture. “In the case of Inkheart – that this is an ensemble piece,” Fraser says.

The history of taking a beloved book and bringing it to screen is littered with failures and Fraser is keenly aware of that fact. Inkheart’s filmmakers have avoided those pratfalls. “Overall, the best thing is it does not condescend to its reader. The film, on the other hand, it’s a completely different art form all together. It tells the story in a way that’s appropriate for an audience to experience by seeing it on screen. A visual for this story is interpreted,” Fraser says. “Novels are one form of art and films are another form of art.”

Funke’s fine fantasy

Fraser admits Inkheart is special in that Funke sets in motion a visual picture in each chapter’s prelude. “While films and books diverge, this one is different. In reading this book, each chapter introduces itself with a quote, or a lyric of a song,” he adds. Turning to the book for such insights aided the actor to further find his character. “It helped me along my way.”

His character’s Mo has a fascination with books, Fraser believes, is vital to the film and novel’s magic. “I think Mo became a bookbinder to have a pretext to go into old book stores and it was a skill he had,” Fraser says.

Mo’s motives run deeper. “He specialized in books because he was on a quest that he would not stop until he found this obscure copy of Inkheart. He knows his wife had something to do with, (he has) to get in there. That was a way he could sneak in undercover and have a reason to be near books. Call it an obsession, but also, he wanted to bring things back to life.”

So what for the actor ignites his imagination?

“Photographs! I find a lot of inspiration in specifically black and white photographers, especially in this age when everything’s gone digital as opposed to a good silver content,” he says and laughs. “I still shoot with it. That really interests me, that feeds my imagination a great deal.”